 Wadi Haddad
News of Haddad's achievements spread quickly throughout the world and in the years that followed other terrorist groups aligned themselves with his cause including Germany's Baader-Meinhof gang and Italy's Red Brigade. The Popular Front also made a favorable impression on the KGB, which resulted in direct support from Moscow. It was through this alliance with Russia that Ilich first became involved with the Popular Front. Rifaat Abul Auon, Haddad's representative in Moscow, met with Ilich and subsequently invited him and a select group of his fellow students to attend a terrorist training camp in Jordan. Intrigued by the offer, Ilich left Moscow in July 1970 to travel to the Middle East. His first stop was Beirut where he arrived unannounced at the office of Bassam Abu-Sharif, the unofficial "recruiting officer" for the Popular Front. Abu-Sharif was impressed with the fervor of Ilich's convictions and made arrangements for him to begin his training. According to subsequent investigations, it was at that first meeting that Ilich was given the name that, in the years to come, would strike terror throughout the world. From that day forward, Ilich was known only as "Carlos." Within weeks of the meeting, Carlos traveled to a Palestinian training camp in the hills north of Amman, Jordan to begin training in weapons handling and explosives interspersed with heavy doses of political propaganda. Even though he did well in his studies there, the course was peppered with fake attacks and other tests of the trainee's bravery. Carlos refused to take them seriously and longed for "real action." In the final week of his training, he got his wish when Israeli jets bombed an adjoining camp and killed a member of Yasser Arafat's personal guard. A week later, Carlos returned to Amman. Anxious to move on to "more exciting" pursuits, Carlos contacted Abou Semir, a senior member of the Popular Front, and was sent to an advanced commando training camp. Black September On September 6 1970, Haddad ordered the simultaneous hijacking of four airliners bound for New York. Leila Khaled, one of Haddad's trusted lieutenants, led the first attack. Khaled had come to notoriety when she had successfully hijacked a TWA flight to Damascus in 1969. In July 1970, Khaled had escaped serious injury when remote controlled rockets were fired into Haddad's house during a meeting. Incredibly, two of the four rockets failed to explode but Haddad's wife and eight-year-old son, who were in another room, received cuts and burns. Haddad blamed Mossad, Israel's secret service, for the attack. Khaled's mission was to hijack an El Al flight, which was en-route to New York from Tel Aviv via Amsterdam. The plan was for Khaled and her accomplice, Patrick Arguello, to pose as a married couple and take control of the aircraft. As the plane approached the English coast, the pair rose from their seats and, brandishing guns, made their way to the cockpit. As they reached the flight deck the pilot thrust the aircraft into a steep nosedive throwing the terrorists off their feet. In the scuffle that followed, Arguello threw a hand grenade down the aisle of the plane and was shot dead shortly after by an El Al "sky marshal." Fortunately the grenade failed to explode. Khaled was overpowered by male passengers and savagely beaten as she tried to retrieve her own grenades, which had been secreted inside her brassiere. After an emergency landing at Heathrow Airport, Khaled became the subject of a heated argument as El Al security and British police fought over who had jurisdiction over the prisoner. Eventually the Israelis conceded defeat and Khaled was taken into British custody.  Dawson's Field, 1970
The second attack also met with problems when the Pan Am 747 was found to be too big to land at the Jordanian airstrip that Haddad had selected. Instead it was flown to Cairo where the passengers and crew were ordered off before the plane was blown up. The other two aircraft, a Swissair DC8 from Zurich and a TWA 707 from Frankfurt were successfully captured and flown to Zarqa airstrip in Jordan as planned. In honour of the event the Palestinians renamed Dawson's Field, a former British airstrip, "Revolution Airstrip." In a public announcement, the Popular Front described the attacks as the first strike in avenging "the American plot to liquidate the Palestinian cause by supplying arms to Israel." They further ordered the Swiss and West German governments to release several of their jailed comrades. A further hijacking by a Popular Front sympathizer saw a BOAC flight from Bombay to London carrying 150 passengers taken hostage and held at Zarqa pending Khaled's release. After twenty-four hours of intense negotiations, 360 passengers and crews were released in exchange for Khaled and six other convicted terrorists. As a final act of revenge, terrorist bombers destroyed the aircraft. Carlos, as a new recruit with no experience, was not used in the attacks but spent the time guarding a munitions depot far from the action. Prior to the hijackings, King Hussein of Jordan had been mostly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and had allowed over fifty terrorist groups into his country. Tensions had been mounting however, since Palestinian attacks on Jewish targets had increased Jordan's vulnerability to retaliatory strikes from Israel. The tension increased in February 1970 when Jordanian troops, attempting to enforce a royal decree that ordered the Palestinians to surrender their guns and explosives, clashed with the "freedom fighters" in a street brawl that lasted three days. The decree was later abandoned. Incensed that the Popular Front would have the audacity the carry out such an act on Jordanian soil without his consent, Hussein decreed marshal law and raised his Bedu army to drive the Palestinians out of Jordan. The resulting conflict was dubbed "Black September" and was to become Carlos's first taste of real warfare. Our Man In London Carlos fought alongside Abu-Sharif against the Jordanian army until 1970 but the war continued to rage another year before King Hussein claimed victory over his enemy. More than three thousand Palestinians died during the conflict, during which Carlos gained the reputation as a fearless fighter and a cool calculating killer. Following their defeat, most members of the Popular Front fled to Israel rather than be taken prisoner by the Bedu army. Carlos was not among them; George Habash had other plans for his young protégé.  Carlos the "playboy," with
mother and friend
He was selected for appointment as the Popular Front's representative in London. His task was to ingratiate himself into British society and draw up a list of "high profile" targets that would either be murdered or kidnapped. On his return from Jordan, Carlos was sent to another training camp to learn the "finer points" of terrorism. By February 1971, Carlos was considered ready for his appointment and traveled to London to be reunited with his family. With his mother's influence, he quickly slipped back into the "cocktail-party set" and resumed his playboy habits. | He attended the University of London to study economics and later took Russian language courses at Central London Polytechnic, all part of his carefully planned façade. His Popular Front contact in London was Mohamed Bouria, an Algerian who, as one of Haddad's most loyal followers, was responsible for European operations. In search of targets, Carlos poured over English newspapers selecting any prominent citizens who were either Jewish or had Israeli sympathies. Once he had created his list, he went to great pains to learn as much about his targets as he could, including home addresses, telephone numbers, nick names and as many personal details as he could glean. His list of names included famous film identities, entertainers politicians and prominent business figures. By December 1971, he had compiled a detailed list containing hundreds of names. It was during this time that his early career as an undercover terrorist was almost terminated. Acting on a tip-off, members of Scotland Yard's Special Branch raided the house in Walpole Street, Chelsea, where he lived with his mother, but after searching the house, found nothing of an incriminating nature. They were led to believe that Carlos was linked to a cache of illegal weapons that had been seized in a previous raid at the house of one of his friends. Incredibly, a fake Italian passport bearing a picture of Carlos was found in the raid but the police considered it unimportant. Apart from being placed under surveillance for several days after the raid, the police left him alone. The family later moved to a new apartment in Kensington.  Maria Tobon
(POLICE)
Despite his Latin American charm and impeccable manners, the many eligible young society ladies that he came into contact with often rebuffed Carlos. One woman however, was attracted by his charm but became more enamored by his political fervor. Maria Nydia Romero de Tobon was an attractive, thirty-seven-year-old Colombian divorcee who moved to London following her divorce to resume her University studies. Nydia, whose grandfather had founded the Colombian Liberal Party, was a revolutionary at heart and was won over by Carlos and the passion he showed for his cause. Some months later, Carlos successfully recruited Nydia and enlisted her aid in securing a string of safe houses for visiting envoys. | At one point she posed as the wife of Antonio Dagues-Bouvier, the Ecuadorian guerrilla who had supposedly trained Carlos in Cuba, and rented three apartments in central London. Her other duties included transporting documents and funds. Carlos would later tell investigators that he and Dagues-Bouvier had, at that time, carried out several "missions" against selected targets. No record has ever been found of any such events having occurred. The general belief is that Carlos's time in London was largely one of inactivity, while in other parts of the world; Haddad had selected others to play his deadly games. Carnage During February 1972, while Carlos languished in London, one of Haddad's teams was hijacking a Lufthansa airliner to Aden. One of the 172 passengers taken hostage was Joseph Kennedy, son of the late Robert Kennedy. Following a short period of negotiations, Kennedy and the other hostages were released safely after the West German government paid a $5,000,000 ransom. The following May, Haddad sent three members of the Japanese Red Army to carry out a brutal attack at Tel Aviv's Lod airport. After arriving at the airport, the three men retrieved automatic weapons and grenades from their luggage and opened fire on the crowd. By the time the firing had stopped, twenty-three travelers were dead and another seventy-six were wounded.  A gunman during the Munich
Olympic Games attack
Two of the terrorists died during the attack, but not from opposing fire. One was killed accidentally when hit by a stray round from one of his companions and the other died when a grenade he was holding detonated prematurely. In September of the same year, a commando squad made up of members of Yasser Arafat's Fatah calling themselves "Black September" launched a pre-dawn raid on the Israeli dormitory at the Munich Olympics. After killing one of the athletes and a coach, the group held the other athletes hostage and demanded the release of 200 of their countrymen who were imprisoned in Israel. After a day of terse negotiations, the West Germans agreed to supply a jet that would take the group and their hostages to Cairo. All went according to plan until German snipers at the airport fired upon the commandos. In the gun battle that followed, nine Israeli athletes and five of the terrorists were killed. When news of the raids reached Carlos he became angry and vented his frustration at having been left out of three decisive strikes that had rocked the world. His frustration mounted as news of the exploits of another of the party faithful reached him. Wrath of God Mohamed Boudia served as the Popular Front's chief operative in Paris in the guise of a theatre director. He was notorious for his ability to seduce young women and convert them to his cause. In 1971 Boudia, an explosives expert, took his young German girlfriend and traveled to Rotterdam in Holland. Their mission was to blow up an Israeli goods depot but the mission failed when the explosives were placed incorrectly and destroyed a Gulf oil refinery instead. Unperturbed, Boudia later sent the same girlfriend, and two other women, to Jerusalem during the Easter holiday period, to blow up a string of holiday hotels. The plan failed when Israeli police detained them at Tel Aviv airport where they were searched and found to be carrying plastic explosives and timers secreted under their clothing and in their make-up. In addition, their underwear had been impregnated with inflammable liquid. Some months later, Boudia and another woman named Therese Lefebvre, tried to attack Schonau castle in Austria, which was used as a transit camp for Russian Jews traveling to Israel. That plan failed but their next attack on an oil refinery in Trieste, Italy succeeded beyond their wildest expectations. The twenty kilos of plastic explosive they planted not only destroyed the refinery, it also crippled the Transalpine pipeline that supplied Bavaria, Vienna and central Europe. The resulting oil fire burned for two days and destroyed 250,000 tons of crude oil, causing damage worth $2.5 billion dollars. On 28 June 1973, shortly before midday, Boudia left the home of one of his mistresses on the Rue des Fosses-Saint-Bernard. He approached his car and being a cautious person, checked it to see if it had been tampered with. Satisfied that it had not, he climbed into the drivers seat but before he could settle himself in the vehicle, an explosion tore through the car killing him instantly. A later investigation by the DST, the French intelligence organization, revealed that a team of Israeli assassins called the "Wrath of God," had planted a mine under Boudia's driver seat. The device, activated by a pressure plate, was a rudimentary one by Israeli standards but proved effective. Boudia had been one of the last targets of the "Wrath of God" group that had been formed to avenge the killings at the Munich Olympics. The group operated with the express approval of the Israeli Prime Minister of the time, Golda Meir. Three weeks after the attack, Carlos returned to Beirut and asked to be sent to Paris to replace Boudia. Although the leaders of the Popular Front were impressed with his work in London, they felt that he did not have the experience for the job and sent him back to London. On his return he was advised that Michel Moukharbal was to be Boudia's successor and Carlos was to serve as his second in command. Carlos was not pleased with the decision and resented Moukhabal's appointment, as he believed that he was unsuitable for the task. Regardless of his disappointment, Carlos made every effort to assist his new leader and agreed that Boudia's death would have to be avenged by striking at Zionist targets in Europe. The attack on Joseph Sieff in London was the first such strike that Carlos would claim responsibility for but it was only the beginning. Campaign A month after the attack on Sieff, Carlos made an aborted bomb attack on the Israeli Hapoalim Bank in London. The attack was a straightforward one. Carlos arrived at the bank during morning trading and opened the front doors and threw the device inside. The device, made from a Russian hand grenade attached to 600 grams of plastic explosive failed to detonate fully and only succeeded in blowing a small crater in the floor and breaking a window. The only casualty was a nineteen-year-old secretary who received minor cuts.  Office of Minute newspaper
after the bombing.
The next chapter in the campaign that Carlos and Moukharbal had devised was the bombing of the offices of three French newspapers that were deemed to be pro-Israeli. Cars full of explosives were left outside the offices of L'Aurore, L'Arche, Minute and Maison de la Radio. The bombs were set to explode at two a.m. and Carlos later claimed that the hour was selected to limit human casualties. In addition he advised the papers of the attack. At the appointed time, three of the four bombs exploded causing massive damage. There were no casualties. The only paper to escape damage was the Maison de la Radio when the vehicle bomb left in front of it failed to detonate. |  Michel Moukharbal
While Carlos was making his presence felt in Paris, Haddad was hatching another plot. He advised Carlos and Moukharbal to align themselves with members of the Japanese Red Army. Prior to the planned alliance, Yutaka Furuya, a member of the JRA, had been arrested at Orly airport in Paris. He was detained because he carried three fake passports in various names and $10,000 in counterfeit bills. When questioned he admitted to being a member of the JRA and a supporter of the Palestinian cause. The DST searched their files and found that Furuya had been involved in an attack on a Shell oil refinery in Singapore organized by the Popular Front. Other encrypted documents in Furuya's possession revealed plans to attack Japanese embassies and companies in seven major European cities. | Furuya was later charged with minor offences relating to the passports and currency and jailed for several months. While he was serving his term of imprisonment, eight other Japanese Red Army members were expelled to Switzerland. The Swiss, wanting no part of terrorists, expelled them to West Germany who in turn sent them to Holland. Within days of their expulsion to Holland, the Japanese Red Army attacked the French embassy in The Hague. The three members who took part in the attack had been equipped and supported by Carlos and Moukharbal prior to the attack. The plan was for the terrorists to capture the French ambassador when he arrived at the embassy. The attack was late but the JRA commandos succeeded in capturing the ambassador's driver and forced him to take them to the ambassador's office. At that point, a random police patrol encountered the terrorists and a gunfight ensued. During the skirmish the leader of the terrorists and two policemen were wounded but the terrorists managed to capture the ambassador, Jacques Senard, and ten other people and hold them hostage in Senard's office. They demanded that Furuya be released from jail and that a Boeing 707 be placed at their disposal. While the demands were considered, Furuya was removed from his cell and taken under armed guard by members of France's Brigade Anti-Commando, to Schipol airport in Amsterdam to await the outcome of the negotiations. The Brigade were under strict orders to execute Furuya if any of the hostages were harmed, an order that came directly from the French Prime Minister, Jacques Chirac. While the negotiations continued, Carlos devised a plan that he hoped would force the release of the terrorists. On a busy Sunday afternoon he entered the trendy Deux-Magots café and made his way to the first floor balcony and threw a fragmentation grenade down into the crowd that milled around the boutiques on the ground floor. Carlos left just before the blast scattered hundreds of lethal fragments through the crowd killing two and injuring thirty-four innocent shoppers. Two days later, the French government agreed to the terrorist's demands. They not only released Furuya and supplied the jet but also paid a $300,000 ransom. They have since insisted that the grenade attack at Deux-Magots had no bearing on their decision. Regardless of the lack of importance placed on the attack, it succeeded in attracting Haddad's attention with the result that he "upgraded" Carlos and ordered him and Moukharbal to seize an El Al jet at Orly airport in December 1974. Finally, Carlos had been selected to take part in "high-profile" operations. Unfortunately for Carlos the planned attack coincided with a strike by El Al staff, which prevented any Israeli aircraft from landing in Paris. Carlos, anxious to prove himself, was told to sit and wait for the strike to end. Finally on January 13 1975, Carlos and Johannes Weinrich, a new accomplice, were sent into action.  Johannes Weinrich
(POLICE)
Shortly after midday, the terrorists were sitting in a rented car at the side of an airport access road waiting for an El Al flight to take off. The plan was to wait until the aircraft was in the air and shoot it down with an RPG-7, a Russian made bazooka. At the appointed time, Weinrich stood at the side of the road and shouldered the weapon and took aim at the approaching El Al 707. He was clearly visible to a Lufthansa employee who stood at his desk less than twenty meters away and an El Al security guard on a nearby rooftop. When the plane was 130 meters away, Weinrich fired but the rocket missed its target and slammed into a parked car. The warhead did not explode. | The recoil of the second shot, fired in haste, pushed Weinrich and the bazooka backwards smashing their cars windscreen. The rocket streaked away toward the airport and passed through a Yugoslav DC9, which was parked off the side of the tarmac, before hitting a building that was used as a kitchen. Fortunately the building was empty at the time of the attack. Following the failed attack, Carlos and Weinrich sped away to a nearby cemetery where they dumped the vehicle and switched to another, leaving the bazooka behind. A later phone call to the Reuters news agency in Paris claimed responsibility for the attack in the name of the Mohamed Boudia Commando. The person making the call promised that, "Next time we will hit our target." While the security around Orly was being strengthened with additional gendarmes and riot police, Carlos and Moukharbal were laying plans for their next attempt. Four days after the first attack, obviously undaunted by the increased security, Carlos and three other Palestinian guerrillas were at the airport "rehearsing" for the next strike. The following Sunday the terrorists returned to the airport and after retrieving another, less powerful bazooka from it's hiding place in a public toilet, they ran out to an observation terrace and prepared to open fire on an El Al jumbo jet that was nearby. Before they could get into position, a security officer on an adjoining rooftop opened fire with a submachine gun. As the crowd ran for cover, one terrorist fired his pistol into the air and threw a grenade. The terrorist with the RPG took the weapon from under his coat and aimed it at the jumbo which by this time was 400 meters away preparing for take off, too far for an effective shot. To make their escape, the terrorists ran into the passenger lounge firing their pistols and throwing grenades. Carlos was not among them as he had slipped away when the shooting had started. Shortly after they entered the lounge they were intercepted by a security patrol. After a short gunfight, eight people, including one of the security officers, lay seriously wounded while the terrorists selected hostages and barricaded themselves in a toilet. In all, they succeeded in taking ten hostages including a priest, a four-year-old girl and a pregnant woman. Ten hours later, after terse negotiations, the French government yielded and supplied a Boeing 707 to fly the Palestinians unharmed to Baghdad in return for the hostages. Annoyed by yet another failed attack, Carlos and Moukharbal flew to London and on to Paris to lie low and make plans for the next phase of their campaign.
Betrayal While Carlos remained in Paris and spent his time finding new locations to stash his growing arsenal of weapons, Moukharbal was making regular trips to Popular Front headquarters in Beirut. On June 7 1975, during one such trip, the Lebanese police arrested Moukharbal at Beirut airport, as he was about to board a flight to return to Paris. In his possession they found detailed notes on the movements of several prominent politicians and business identities in Paris and London. Anxious to connect Moukharbal to terrorist activities, the Beirut police asked a former DST officer who was resident in Lebanon, to conduct the interrogation. After questioning the prisoner for nearly two days, Jean-Paul Mauriat, learned that Moukharbal was a member of the Popular Front and worked for a man called George Habash. During the interview, he also mentioned another man he called Nourredine. When asked for further information, Moukharbal told them that the man in question was a "hit man, a killer." Moukharbal was released on June 13 and put on a plane to Paris, unaware that an undercover Lebanese policeman was tailing him. When the flight arrived in Paris, the Lebanese officer pointed Moukharbal out to a DST team waiting at the airport. Moukharbal was then followed as he caught a cab to Latin Quarter and entered a small apartment building at 9 Rue Toullier. A short time later, Moukharbal left the apartment with a heavily built man with dark hair who carried a suitcase. The DST agents took several photographs of the men but called off the surveillance shortly after. On June 20, supposedly under constant observation, Moukharbal left Paris and traveled to London. Realizing too late that their man had slipped away, the DST notified London's Special Branch and had him picked up and sent back to Paris. On his arrival at Calais, Moukharbal was taken into custody and questioned by members of the Renseignments Generaux, the French domestic intelligence section. Initially, Moukharbal refused to cooperate with his captors but seven days later, after being threatened with expulsion to Beirut and told that his superiors were not impressed that he had talked to the Lebanese police, Moukharbal cracked and gave them information regarding Nourredine. One piece of information that he did not reveal was the fact that Nourredine was actually his second in command, Carlos.  9 Rue Toullier
He told them that Nourredine often visited 9 Rue Toullier, the home of one of his girlfriends. Acting on the information, Commissaire Herranz and three other officers immediately drove to the address with Moukharbal in the hope that the man might still be there. At the time of their arrival, Carlos was entertaining several Venezuelan students and was partially drunk. When the police knocked at the door of the apartment, Carlos was in the bathroom with one of the girls, showing her an automatic machine pistol, one of the many weapons that he had stashed there. The police attempted to question Carlos but he resisted and threatened to call his embassy to complain. The talk became heated and Carlos went back to the bathroom, retrieved his weapon and slid it down the back of his trousers. Re- entering the room, Carlos offered the policemen drinks and asked one of the women to play a song. The atmosphere in the tiny flat became more relaxed until one of the other police officers entered the room with Moukharbal. When asked if he could identify anyone in the room he raised his arm and pointed at Carlos. Carlos immediately drew his machine pistol and shot Moukharbal in the neck. Next he swung the gun towards Herranz and shot him, also in the neck. With deadly precision, Carlos shot the two remaining detectives before making his escape into the street via an adjoining apartment. Later, a badly wounded Herranz, was helped into a taxi by two of the students and taken to hospital, he was the only survivor. Incredibly, the attack had been so quick and deadly that the bodies of Moukharbal and the two detectives lay stacked on top of one another. Ironically, prior to the shooting, the French authorities had no knowledge of Carlos or his activities but the eyewitness account, provided by Herranz, gave them enough information to initiate one of the biggest manhunts in history. Within days of the attack, while the authorities were busy rounding up anyone who had even the slightest connection to him, Carlos made a late night visit to the home of an old girlfriend and retrieved several documents including a Chilean passport that he used to make his escape to Beirut via Brussels. 'The Famous Carlos' On his return to Beirut, Carlos was feted as the conquering hero for his achievements in Paris. He was able to convince Haddad that he had executed Moukharbal for betraying the cause; a fact that was later confirmed when a former Mossad agent revealed that Moukharbal had been acting as a double agent for the Israelis since 1973 and had provided the information that had resulted in the death of Mohamed Boudia.  Wilfred Bose (POLICE)
Having proved himself in Haddad's eyes, Carlos was encouraged to select a new team to assist him with an attack that was not only ambitious but also highly dangerous. Carlos traveled to Frankfurt and selected two West Germans, Wilfred Bose and Joachim Klein. They were shocked when he informed them that they were about to embark on a mission that would strike a resounding blow for the Palestinian cause; an attack on the headquarters of the Organisation of Petroleum-Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna. The goal was to take over the conference, planned for December 1975, by force and kidnap all the government ministers in attendance and hold them for ransom with the exception of Arabia's Sheik Yamani and Iran's Jamshid Amouzegar, who were to be executed during the attack. |  Gabriele Tiedemann
(POLICE)
He allayed their initial skepticism assuring them that he had advance knowledge of the security arrangements at the conference, which were lax. Four others made up the remainder of the team. The first was Gabrielle Krocher-Tiedemann, a German woman, who had been jailed two years earlier after shooting a policeman when he attempted to arrest her for stealing number plates in a car park. The other three were two Palestinians and a Lebanese known only by their code-names, Joseph, Khalid and Yussef. | Having assembled his team and organized the weapons they would need, Carlos flew to Aden for a final briefing from Haddad. He returned to Europe via Switzerland and took a train to Austria where he booked himself into a plush suite at the Vienna Hilton. The rest of the team had to make do with less luxurious accommodation and criticized Carlos for his "bourgeois lifestyle." Unperturbed, Carlos insisted that his choice of accommodation was necessary for his own security. Although Carlos still retained his love of good food, fine wines and plush surroundings, he no longer resembled the well-groomed playboy of his earlier years. In the months prior to the OPEC raid, he had grown his hair and sideburns, cultivated a goatee beard and wore a black beret; just like his childhood hero Che Guevara. After renting two small flats on the outskirts of Vienna, the team carried out a surveillance of OPEC headquarters and researched the records of previous conferences. Carlos later moved out of the hotel and relocated his team to a larger flat closer to the city center. At Carlos's insistence, team meetings were held in luxury restaurants whenever possible. At one such meeting, Carlos informed his team that, during the attack, any of the hostages or bystanders who resisted or caused any problem would be executed on the spot. Klein disagreed arguing that such a move would only serve to create an uncontrolled panic. The pair argued the point for over two hours before they realised that the other patrons in the restaurant could hear their raised voices, and the details of their plan, clearly. On Friday 19 December, Carlos left the flat to meet with his contact, allegedly a member of the secret service for one of the OPEC ministers. A short time later, Carlos returned carrying two large bags containing M-16 rifles, P38 revolvers, Skorpion machine pistols and fifteen kilos of explosives. Klein's Revolutionary Cell later supplied another suitcase full of weapons. After spending most of the evening cleaning and preparing the weapons, the team was ready. On the following Sunday morning, Carlos, Klein, Krocher-Tiedemann and the three Arabs, left the flat carrying the weapons and explosives in sports bags. Bose did not take part in the attack. After a short tram ride they arrived at the seven story building that housed the OPEC headquarters, at half past eleven. Carlos entered the buildings lobby first and, after greeting the two young policemen at the door, he beckoned for the rest of the team to follow. In the hallway, he asked a small group of journalists if the OPEC meeting was still on. When they replied in the affirmative, Carlos thanked them and led his party up the stairs to the first floor where the meeting room was located. Once they reached the top of the staircase, the terrorists removed their weapons and ran towards the reception area outside the doors of the conference room and started shooting. Two Austrian police inspectors, Josef Janda and Anton Tichler who stood guard outside the doors leading into the meeting room, provided the only security on the floor. On reaching the reception area, Klein split from the main group to take control of the switchboard. As he approached, Edith Heller, the receptionist, dialed the police and managed to report the attack before Klein fired a bullet into the telephone handset she was holding next to her head. Undaunted, Heller picked up another handset and attempted to dial. Klein then turned his gun on the switchboard and emptied his remaining bullets into it. Meanwhile, Carlos and the rest of the team had entered the hallway that led to the meeting chamber. As they approached the two security guards, Inspector Tichler grabbed the barrel of Carlos's machine pistol and attempted to disarm him, but Carlos was too strong for the sixty-year-old policeman and wrenched it from his grasp. Krocher-Tiedemann then walked behind Tichler and asked him if he was a policeman. When he replied yes, she fired a bullet into the back of his neck that tore a hole through his throat. Fatally wounded, he was then placed in an elevator and sent to the ground floor. Returning from the elevator, Krocher-Tiedemann arrived in time to see a large man backing out of the reception area. She immediately ran to him and pushed her pistol against his chest. The man, a plain-clothed Iraqi security guard, grabbed her tightly and squeezed her against his chest. The pair struggled for a short time until Krocher-Tiedemann managed to draw a second pistol and fired a shot into the man's brain. While Krocher-Tiedemann was carrying out her second execution in as many minutes, Carlos grabbed inspector Janda and forced him along the corridor towards the inner office. Unaware that Janda was a policeman; Carlos pushed his prisoner into an abandoned office and locked the door. Janda immediately found a phone and called his headquarters. His message was short and to the point - "Criminal Officer Janda, Department One. OPEC attack. Shooting with machine-pistols." The urgency of the call was intensified by the sounds of gunfire from the hallway as Carlos executed a Libyan economist who had tried to disarm him. After shooting his latest victim four times, Carlos entered the conference room, firing a volley of shots into the ceiling. As the occupants ducked for cover, Carlos identified Sheik Yamani and approached him speaking to him in a sarcastic manner. He then approached Valentin Hernandez Acosta, the Venezuelan oil minister and engaged him in friendly conversation. It was at that time that Yamani realised that his masked attacker was the terrorist Carlos. The realization came as a shock to Yamani as he was aware that Carlos had previously plotted to assassinate him. While Carlos and his accomplice were questioning their prisoners, a special detachment of police had arrived at the building in response to Inspector Janda's phone call. Three of the members of Vienna's special command unit entered the foyer of the building to be greeted by the site of Inspector Tichler's body protruding from the floor of an elevator. The men dressed in helmets and bullet-proof vests and carrying Uzi sub-machine guns, then made their way up the stairs towards the first floor reception area only to be greeted by a volley of bullets from Klein and Joseph who were covering the reception area. Hampered by poor lighting and a pall of gun smoke, the police returned fire, wounding Klein in the stomach and thigh with a third bullet and knocking his weapon from his hand. During the exchange the leader of the police squad, Kurt Leopolder was shot in the buttocks. Seemingly unaffected by his wounds, Klein shouted, "Get out or everyone will be killed," and prepared to throw a grenade towards the police. Fumbling the throw, the grenade landed just four meters away from where he stood. As it rolled across the floor everyone dived for cover and the grenade exploded, peppering the walls with metal shards. The grenade attack and Klein's threat to kill the hostages convinced the police to withdraw and seek safety on the ground floor. Klein examined his stomach and returned to the conference room to show Carlos the wound. Carlos patted him on the head and directed him to assist with the hostages. Stepping to the window Carlos looked down at the street where the police command units were assembled. He then ordered the sixty-three hostages to be split into three separate groups, "Liberals and semi-liberals," "criminals" and "neutrals." The "Liberals" consisting of the delegates from Algeria, Kuwait, Libya and Iraq, were told to stand against the windows that faced the street. Beside them, Yussef stacked the explosives and connected them to electronic timers. The "neutral" delegates representing Venezuela, Nigeria, Indonesia, Ecuador and Gabon were directed to stand on the opposite side of the room.  Sheikh Ahmed Yamani
The final group of "criminals," from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Iran and Qatar were assembled before Carlos. Stepping towards Yamani, Carlos asked, "Do you know me?" "Very well," Yamani answered. Carlos then announced in Arabic that he was the head of the Palestinian commando whose main targets were Iran and Saudi Arabia. He told them that if they cooperated they would not be harmed. He then called for a British secretary to write a message of demand for the Austrian authorities. The note, in English was short and direct: - To the Austrian Authorities | We are holding hostage the delegations to the OPEC conference.
We demand the lecture of our communiqué on the Austrian radio and television network every two hours, starting two hours from now.
A large bus with windows covered by curtains must be prepared to carry us to the airport Of Vienna tomorrow at 7.00, where a full- tanked DC9 with a crew of three must be ready to take us and our hostages to our destination. Any delay, provocation or unauthorized approach under any guise will endanger the life of our hostages. The Arm of the Arab Revolution Vienna 21/XII/75 In addition, Carlos dictated a seven-page communiqué in French extolling the "virtues" of the Palestinian cause and demanded, among other things, the relaunch of Arab unification. When the documents were finished, Carlos ordered the secretary, Griselda Carey, to take them to the authorities. She was also directed to assist the wounded Leopolder to leave the building on the condition that the police agreed to stop firing at the terrorists. Leopolder agreed and the pair made their way out of the foyer on to the street. After interviewing the secretary and learning about the separation of the delegates and the explosives, the Austrians had no choice other than to begin negotiations. While he waited for an answer to his demands, Carlos played "mind-games" with the hostages. After freeing another secretary who had become hysterical, Carlos taunted his captives and left a loaded pistol on a table next to several of the ministers while still retaining his machine-gun. The delegates later recalled that they believed that Carlos was trying to tempt them to grab for the weapon so that he would have justification for killing them. As Carlos played his sick games, Klein's condition was deteriorating. Belaid Abdessalam, who was also a doctor, examined Klein and agreed to relay a message to the authorities demanding that Klein be taken to hospital for urgent treatment. Carlos then emptied Klein's pockets and told Abdessalam to take him out of the building. When the pair reached the foyer, Klein was asked in German if he was a hostage. Klein replied, in broken English - "My fight name is Angie," before collapsing. He was conveyed to hospital where surgeons discovered that the bullet had torn through his colon, pancreas and duodenal artery. They were amazed that he had been able to function with such a serious wound. The negotiations began with Carlos demanding that the Libyan ambassador to Vienna be appointed as mediator but was advised that he was out of the country. The negotiations stalled until Riyadh Al-Azzawi, the Iraqi Charge D'Affaires, offered his services, which proved acceptable to both parties. When Al-Azzawi made first contact with the terrorists he was told by Carlos, "Tell them I'm from Venezuela and my name is Carlos. Tell them I am the famous Carlos, they know me." Through the mediator Carlos restated his demands. As well as the plane and crew, he wanted a radio, 25 meters of rope and five pairs of scissors. He also demanded that Klein be released from hospital in time to make the trip. When Al-Azzawi told Carlos that Klein was on life support and could not be moved for a month, Carlos consulted with his companions and told the mediator, "I don't care if he dies on the flight, we came together and we'll leave together." At 6.22 that evening, the first concession was made and the communiqué that Carlos had penned, was broadcast. Other broadcasts followed at two-hourly intervals. An emergency cabinet meeting was called at midnight to assess the situation. In view of the killings that had occurred and faced with the prospect of many more, Austrian Chancellor Bruno Kreisky and his cabinet agreed to accede to the terrorist's demands on the condition that all OPEC employees were to be released prior to the groups departure. On hearing the news Carlos was livid and shouted at the mediator that he was the one who decided who should be released. Within minutes, Carlos changed his mood drastically and agreed to the terms, telling Al-Azzawi that he had already decided to release the employees well before the Chancellor's request.  Enroute to the airport
At 6.40 the following morning, a yellow postal bus with curtained windows, pulled up outside the rear entrance of the OPEC building. Shortly after, Carlos was standing brazenly beside the bus, as the hostages were loaded. After separating the employees that were to be freed, he provided a show for the television cameras by shaking hands with each of the hostages as they were released. When the remaining forty-two hostages were safely onboard, the bus drove towards the airport led by an ambulance and two police cars with flashing lights. Another ambulance carrying Klein, and a doctor who had volunteered to accompany him on the trip, had departed for the airport earlier. | As the convoy made it's way through the morning traffic, Carlos could be seen clearly, standing at the window in the front of the bus next to the driver, waving at passers-by. Ironically, the sign on the front of the bus bore the legend, Sonderfahrt or Special Trip.  Loading the hostages
After arriving at the airport, the hostages were loaded on the Austrian Airlines DC9 but as Carlos prepared to board, Otto Roesch, the Austrian Interior and a former member of the Hitler Youth, stepped forward to shake hands with Carlos. The scene was captured by the press who ran it as a cover story the next day under the banner, "handshake of shame," which brought worldwide criticism of not only Roesch but also the entire Austrian government. | Once on the plane, Carlos again separated the hostages, placing explosives under the seats occupied by Yamani, and Amouzegar and their deputies. Finally at 9.00am on Monday, 22 December, the plane took off, bound for Algiers. On the flight Carlos seemed to relax and chatted casually with Sheik Yamani and the other delegates. He later strutted along the aisle handing out his autograph. Taking advantage of his captors change in attitude, Yamani asked about their destination and was informed that after a brief stopover in Algiers, they intended to fly to Tripoli. Carlos seemed unperturbed that one of his hostages was the Libyan delegate and when Yamani raised the question he was told that the Libyan Prime Minister would be there to welcome them and would supply a plane to fly them to Baghdad. Two-and-a-half hours after leaving Vienna, the plane touched down at El Beida airport outside of Algiers. Carlos left the aircraft unarmed and was greeted warmly by Abdel Aziz Bouteflika, Algeria's Foreign Minister who escorted him to the VIP lounge. An ambulance was then supplied to take Klein to hospital for treatment. After a brief conversation with Bouteflika, Carlos agreed to release the thirty non-Arab delegates and officials. The others were told to remain on the plane. Despite the warm welcome they had offered him, the Algerian government refused to give Carlos another plane. In frustration, Carlos asked for the DC-9 to be refueled and the plane took off bound for Tripoli. The reception in Tripoli was totally different from that in Algiers, with the Libyan's refusing to supply a plane and demanding the release of the Libyan hostages. Aboard the aircraft, the situation became tense with Carlos threatening to shoot the hostages if he didn't get his way. Finally, early on Tuesday morning Carlos released the Libyans and five other delegates. Anxious to procure a larger aircraft with greater range, Carlos then contacted the Saudi Arabian government who also refused to help while ever Sheik Yamani was held against his will. Frustrated that his plan was unraveling, Carlos again ordered the plane to be refueled and gave orders to return to Algiers. As the plane approached Tunisia, the local air traffic controller called the pilot by radio and informed him that the plane was forbidden to land in Tunis even though a request for permission had never been made. Carlos was angered by the message and ordered the pilot to make an approach to the airfield but Tunis control turned off the runway lights making a landing impossible.  Carlos at Algiers airport
(POLICE)
Tired and stressed from nearly four days without sleep, Carlos directed the pilot to return to Algiers. At 3.40am the plane landed a second time at Dar El Beida airport where Carlos was greeted by Foreign Minister Bouteflika who was obviously unimpressed that he'd returned. A short discussion followed after which Carlos returned to the plane in a dark mood and informed his hostages that their fate would be decided after he met with his colleagues. Yamani watched as the terrorists talked in another part of the plane but was only able to ascertain that they were arguing about something. As Carlos returned to speak with the ministers, they were wondering if they were about to die. Instead Carlos informed them, "We have finally decided to release you at Midday and with that decision your life is completely out of danger." When Yamani asked why they couldn't be released earlier, he was told that they should get some sleep first. Krocher-Tiedemann was obviously displeased with the decision to release the hostages and cursed Carlos loudly. They were about to bed down for the night when Carlos was summoned by the Algerians for more talks. He returned two hours later and told Yamani and Amouzegar, "I am leaving the plane now and you will follow me out in five minutes." After the allotted time elapsed, the hostages did as they were told and left the aircraft, wondering if it was about to explode. When they reached the safety of the VIP lounge they discovered that the terrorists were already there. As the hostages began to relate the details of their ordeal to Bouteflika, an angry Khalid approached them and grasped at his shirt. Thinking quickly, Bouteflika passed Khalid a glass of juice giving the Algerian police time to hold and search him. When they found a gun concealed under his arm, he told the police, "I came here to carry out the agreed execution of these criminals, but you have prevented me." Some time later a group of journalists watched as a convoy of official black cars left the airport. As the convoy approached, one of the cars stopped beside them. Carlos leaned from the passenger's window and stared at them for several minutes before giving the order to go. Carlos the Jackal had escaped unscathed yet again. In the years following the OPEC raid, Abu Sharif and Joachim Klein both confirmed that Carlos had received a large sum of money in exchange for the safe release of the Arab hostages and had kept it for his personal use. There is still some uncertainty regarding the amount that changed hands but it is believed to be somewhere between 20-50 million dollars. Who paid the money is also uncertain but according to Klein it came from "an Arab President." Carlos later told his lawyers that the money was paid by the Saudis on behalf of the Iranians and was, "diverted en route and lost by the Revolution." He insisted that had he taken the money for himself he would have been tracked down and killed before he could spend it.
Terrorist For Hire Following his triumphant exit from Algiers airport and the accompanying media coverage, Carlos was believed to be hiding somewhere in Algiers. Shortly after the dramatic conclusion to the OPEC raid, the Austrian government filed a request for his extradition. They were less than pleased when the Algerian government informed them that, since no extradition treaty existed between the two countries, they were unable to comply with the request. What the Austrian government did not know was that Carlos had been granted political asylum as part of the deal to release the hostages, which he had readily accepted. The French government, who maintained a friendly alliance with Algeria, were also taking a keen interest in his whereabouts, but failed to make an extradition request stating that to do so would only offend the government of their former colony. This was a curious decision considering that they had written proof, in the form of a letter that Carlos had given to Hernandez Acosta at the time of the latter's release. The letter was addressed to Carlos's mother and clearly stated that he was responsible for leading the OPEC raid. For some reason, the French government had originally denied that any such document existed, but later recanted the story. They were further embarrassed when Scotland Yard experts positively identified the handwriting as being that of the man who called himself Carlos the Jackal. While many of the world's security agencies, including the CIA, were actively seeking him, Carlos was living in a luxurious villa overlooking Algiers that had been supplied by Algerian President Houari Boumedienne. Carlos stayed at the villa for two weeks while he waited for Klein to recover in hospital. During that time, Foreign Minister Bouteflika, the Chief of Police and the head of the Algerian secret service, entertained him at dinner. To ensure the safety of his guest, Boumedienne also provided bodyguards to protect Carlos twenty-four hours a day. A week later, when Klein was released from hospital, Carlos and his accomplice flew to Libya where they were greeted warmly by Colonel Qathafi and filmed for television. Given Libya's refusal to allow Carlos's plane to land during the OPEC hostage drama, Qathafi's expansive attitude was puzzling. Some years later, an accomplice of Carlos expressed the view that Qathafi had in fact commissioned the OPEC raid and paid Carlos $1 million a year as a reward. French intelligence later revealed that Qathafi also provided the funds for Carlos's stay in Algeria. On February 10, Carlos and Klein flew to Aden in South Yemen for a Popular Front meeting in a private jet supplied by Qathafi. The meeting was called by Wadi Haddad to review the effectiveness of the OPEC raid. The meeting lasted for two days during which, Carlos, Klein and Krocher-Tiedemann blamed each other for their failure to carry out the mission according to Haddad's instructions. Haddad took no part in the heated discussions but took copious notes during the proceedings. Towards the end of the meeting, Haddad repeatedly questioned Carlos regarding his failure to execute Yamani and Amouzegar as planned. When the meeting finished, Carlos and Klein were ordered to attend a Popular Front training camp in Aden while they waited for Haddad's verdict on their actions. After several days at the camp, Carlos was summoned by Haddad and informed that because he had failed to execute the Arab hostages as planned, he would no longer be welcome as a member of the Popular Front. In dismissing Carlos Haddad told him: - "Stars are very bad at following instructions. You have not followed my instructions. There is no room for stars in my operational teams. You can go." In deference to Carlos, Haddad kept the expulsion secret while his former protégé decided his future. Years later, Carlos related the incident somewhat differently claiming he had left the Popular Front of his own free will. His dismissal remained a secret for several months during which time the press reported Carlos was the leader of the 1976 hijacking of an Air France flight to Entebbe, Uganda. The attack was in fact led by Wilfred Bose who was later killed when Israeli paratroopers launched a successful raid on Entebbe to free the hostages. In September 1976, Carlos and Klein flew to Belgrade and spent three weeks holidaying in Yugoslavia. Their movements came to the attention of West German intelligence that in turn notified Belgrade's National Security Council demanding that Carlos and his accomplice be arrested and extradited back to Germany. The NSC complied and arrested both men. When Carlos was taken into custody he was in possession of an Algerian diplomatic passport issued under a false name. After just four days in custody, Carlos was released by order of Marshall Tito because Tito did not want the political embarrassment of having Carlos in Belgrade because French President Valery Giscard d'Estaing was due to arrive for an official visit. When the United States and German governments criticized Tito's decision they were told that there was no evidence to indicate that Carlos had ever been in Yugoslavia. Meanwhile Carlos and Klein had been put on a plane to be taken to Baghdad via Damascus. When the plane arrived in Damascus, they were refused permission to take off again. Being unarmed, Carlos believed that he and Klein would be shot if they left the plane. Their fears were confirmed when armed secret service police posing as cleaning staff tried to board the aircraft but failed to gain access when the pilot informed them that the plane constituted foreign territory. Five hours of intense negotiations followed during which the "cleaners" loosened the plane's wheels to prevent it taking off. Only after the intervention of two Yugoslav diplomats was the plane released and allowed to fly to Baghdad where the terrorists were supplied with free accommodation, bodyguards and a chauffeured limousine. Carlos stayed in Iraq for three weeks but was in constant fear of reprisals, especially when he learned that Saudi Arabia had put a million dollar bounty on him. Carlos eventually chose to settle in Aden, South Yemen where he felt safer. Again, it was Qathafi who paid his expenses. During his stay, he spent some time training other terrorist groups, giving them the benefit of his experience, but training others was not what he wanted to do with his life. From the time of his involvement with the Popular Front, Carlos had thought of only one thing, running his own terrorist organisation. Several problems had to be solved before he could achieve his goal, mainly where to base his operation and how to raise the funds necessary to run such a group. Another factor was recruiting a band of loyal followers. Just as Haddad had taught him, Carlos looked to the West German Revolutionary Cells for an able assistant. As his first choice, Wilfred Bose, had been killed at Entebbe, Carlos sent for Johannes Weinrich, the man who had assisted in the rocket attack at Orly airport. Weinrich had previously been arrested for provided the cars used in the Orly attack and was subsequently sent to prison. However, just eight months into his sentence he was released on probation for health reasons and promptly jumped bail. He was still on the run when Carlos's offer reached him, which he promptly accepted. His first task was to recruit Hans-Joachim Klein but after tracking him to a chalet in the Italian Alps, he found a different Klein, one who was disillusioned with the revolutionary cause and opposed to violence to the point that he had tipped off the German authorities about a planned murder of two members of the German Jewish community by the Revolutionary Cell. Carlos was not impressed that his former accomplice had defected "to the other side." Shortly after receiving the news, Carlos left Aden for Columbia where he hoped to establish himself as a modern-day Che Guevara. He quickly found the atmosphere in Latin America less than receptive and returned to the Middle East. Haddad meanwhile had selected a new team to launch an attack in retaliation for the failed Entebbe raid. Carlos had hoped that Haddad may have changed his mind and select him to lead the attack but this was not to be. In place of Carlos, Haddad selected Souhalia Andrawes to lead the attack. On October 13, 1977, Andrawes and three accomplices hijacked a Lufthansa 737 bound for Somalia and held the eighty-six passengers and crew in exchange for the release of Palestinian and Baader-Meinhof guerrillas held in custody and a $15 million ransom. In the five days that followed, the planes captain was forced to fly to Italy, Cyprus, Bahrain, Dubai and South Yemen while the passengers sat strapped in their seats doused with flammable liquids. For the duration of the flight Andrawes strode up and down the aisle yelling abuse, brandishing live grenades, the pins of which she had strapped to her fingers. When the plane reached South Yemen, Mahmoud, one of Andrawes accomplices accused the pilot of attempting to orchestrate an escape. The pilot insisted that he had only been talking to Aden airport officials regarding the flight. Mahmoud then dragged the captain out in front of the passengers and after asking if him if he was guilty or not guilty shot him through the head. Andrawes, who witnessed the event, burst out laughing, after which the captain's body was left where it lay for some time until it was eventually thrown out onto the tarmac. The co-pilot was then ordered to fly to Mogadishu in Somalia. Shortly after the plane landed it was attacked by a West German GSG-9 commando unit. Using stun grenades supplied by the British SAS, the commandos stormed the plane and killed the terrorists with the exception of Andrawes who had been hiding in a toilet. When the commandos learned of her hiding place, they fired through the door wounding her in the shoulders and legs. As was carried away on a stretcher, despite being seriously wounded, she raised her hand in a victory salute and shouted, "the Arabs will win." With the failure of yet another of Haddad's plans, Carlos was inspired to push ahead with his own plan of independent action. In December 1977, accompanied by Libyan intelligence officers, Carlos travelled to Baghdad where he met with Saddam Hussein who was the first to offer his support. This was an important victory for Carlos as it also guaranteed the support of Iraq's KGB trained secret service, the Al Mukharabat. His plan received another unexpected boost in March 1978 when Wadi Haddad, aged just forty-nine, died of suspected Leukaemia. His death cleared the way for Carlos to approach the Middle Eastern states and offer his services as a "terrorist for hire." For some, the fact that Haddad's death came at a time when Carlos was vying for position, suggests that he may have been a victim of foul play. The favourite theory is that the Iraqis who openly supported Carlos poisoned Haddad. New Beginnings Following Haddad's death, Carlos was free to approach many of the Popular Front operatives who were now without a leader. His plan was to form a group of experienced people who would be capable of running multiple operations at the same time supported by another force of "sleeper" agents who could be counted on to provide on-site intelligence and become active when needed. Carlos managed to recruit experienced radicals from Syria, Switzerland and Lebanon with the core members taken from West Germany's Revolutionary Cells. At that time, Weinrich introduced Carlos to his girlfriend, a German divorcee named Magdelana Kopp who had joined the Revolutionary Cells in 1970. Carlos told Weinrich that he'd like to meet Kopp and arranged for her to meet him in Algiers. Kopp made such an impression on Carlos that he set out to seduce her with scant regard for her relationship with Weinrich. Kopp initially showed no interest in his advances but was soon won over by his charms. Life was good for Carlos; he had his organization, backing from several Arab states and a new girlfriend who was to become his wife in January 1979. All he required was a name for his terrorist group, which was solved by taking the name that Michel Moukharbal had devised during his time in Paris, Organisation of Arab Armed Struggle. While Carlos was putting the finishing touches to his new organisation, the CIA and the French clandestine operations unit, SDECE were intensifying their hunt for him. The CIA had previously hired a European man who knew Carlos, to gather intelligence on their behalf and if given the opportunity, to have him killed. The SDECE, on the other hand, appointed Phillipe Rondot, a brilliant agent with impeccable contacts in the Arab world, to track him down. In order to learn more about his quarry, Rondot chose to start with Carlos's family as they had intelligence that indicated that Carlos occasionally visited his mother. Following this line, Rondot arranged for an agent to settle in Colombia to befriend the divorced Elba. The ruse succeeded as Carlos was spotted in a Colombian restaurant but Carlos left when he overheard the agent speaking French to his companion. Another agent was sent to San Cristobal to befriend Ramirez Navas. One theory suggests that the SDECE intended to infect Navas with Hepatitis B so that Carlos would run to his bedside, making him available for capture but no such plan ever eventuated. During a trip to East Berlin in 1979, Carlos came to the attention of the Ministry for State Security or Stasi who were responsible for internal security, which mainly consisted of spying on East Germany's 17 million residents. Stasi had first become aware of pro-Palestinian terrorism after the Munich Olympics attack in 1972 and soon after established relations with Palestinian guerrilla groups. An alliance was formed and in exchange for information on Israel and Arab countries the East Germans provided training in espionage and guerrilla warfare. No direct approach was made to Carlos during his time in East Berlin but Stasi agents monitored his movements in a way that ensured that Carlos was aware of their presence. They later made direct contact with Johannes Weinrich to ascertain his leaders intentions and eventually endorsed his actions. Carlos later travelled to Cuba and formed an alliance with Fidel Castro but a further trip to Moscow failed to gain any such support from the Soviets. The Hungarian authorities, while failing to officially endorse Carlos and his group, allowed him to maintain a string of safe houses in Budapest. One Man's War In January 1982, Carlos began to lay plans for an attack in France. After forming an alliance with a Swiss extremist group, plans were laid to destroy a nuclear plant that was under construction in Central France. Shortly before midnight on January 18, a group including Magdelana Kopp fired an RPG-7 rocket launcher across the River Rhone at the outer shell of the reactor but, despite firing five rockets, failed to penetrate the thick concrete causing only minor damage. Prior to the rocket attack, Kopp's involvement had been limited to forging documents and maintaining communications with other guerrilla groups, but she was soon selected for another mission. In February 1982, she left Budapest and travelled to Paris. Her companion on the trip was a Swiss revolutionary named Bruno Breguet who had previously served seven years of a fifteen-year sentence for attempting to smuggle explosives into Israel. As an active member of the Popular Front at the time, he was the first European to be imprisoned for pro-Palestinian activities. After arriving in Paris, the mission suffered a setback when Kopp's handbag, containing $50,000 in cash and several fake passports, was stolen. Two days later she and Breguet were apprehended in an underground car park by security guards when their old car aroused suspicion because it bore new number plates. When the pair failed to produce any papers to verify the origin of the vehicle or the plates, they were detained while the police were called. The pair then made their escape when Breguet pulled a pistol and pointed it at the guards and ran away. On reaching the street, Kopp was caught by the police and shortly after Breguet was also apprehended. During the arrest, his attempt to shoot a policeman failed when his pistol jammed. After the arrest Kopp was found to be carrying $2000 in cash while Breguet carried two passports. A later search of their vehicle uncovered another pistol, two kilos of explosives, two grenades, an alarm clock and a battery complete with electrical wiring. Despite undergoing intense questioning for several hours, the pair refused to talk other than to tell police that they were International revolutionaries who were not about to commit any acts on French soil. What they did not divulge was that their mission was to bomb the Paris office of Al Watan al Arabi a magazine that had printed a story alleging the involvement of the Syrian government in the assassination of Louis Delamare, the French Ambassador to Beirut. The story angered the Syrian government and the SDECE believes that Carlos was hired to carry out the bombing on their behalf. At the time of her arrest, Kopp had no identity papers and the passports found in Breguet's possessions were found to be false. Later checks correctly identified them both together with the fact that Breguet had already served time for smuggling explosives and the German authorities sought Kopp for supplying explosives to the Baader-Meinhoff group.
Hunting The Jackal In the wake of the latest attack, President Mitterrand expressed a lack of faith in the existing anti-terrorist organisations and called for the formation of a new counter-terrorism unit reporting directly to him. The man that Mitterrand selected to head the new unit was the former head of the Elite French Paramilitary police, Colonel Christian Prouteau; his brief was to "conduct missions of coordination, intelligence and action against terrorism." His appointment caused disruption in the established police and intelligence communities with representatives of the DST and the SDECE labelling Prouteau and his group as, "a bunch of cowboys." Mitterrand had long been a critic of France's intelligence organisations and openly criticised them at every opportunity. Another surprising appointment occurred when the head of the SDECE, Count Alexandre de Marenches was asked to step down. In his place, Mitterrand appointed Pierre Marion, a former leader of the French Action Service, the organisation that had successfully infiltrated other terrorist groups and had marked several prominent terrorists for "neutralisation." Action Service was also believed to have been responsible for hundreds of "officially sanctioned" murders including the attack on the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior." The SDECE was also renamed the DGSE. With his newest Presidential appointment, Marion was now being given the "green light" to track down and eliminate other "targets of opportunity" within the terrorist community. In a later meeting with the President, Marion submitted his "death-list" of over a dozen names for Mitterrand's approval. When the meeting was over, Marion left the Elysee Palace with authorisation to kill only two terrorists, Abu Nidal and Carlos. In December 1982, as Marion was laying his plans, John Siddel, the head of the CIA's Paris station was calling a meeting with the new head of the DST, Yves Bonnet. The reason for the meeting was to discuss the latest intelligence regarding the whereabouts of Carlos. According to Siddel, the CIA had established a connection with a reliable Syrian informant who insisted that Carlos was hiding out in Damascus and was making plans to travel to the Swiss resort of Gstaad. Siddel gave Bonnet the name of the hotel where Carlos would be staying, his planned date of arrival and suggested that the DST might like to intercept him. When Bonnet relayed the information to his superior, Interior Minister Deferre, he was surprised at the enthusiastic response. "We'll take the risk of catching him, we'll gun him down. I take full responsibility. My duty isn't to ask the President; he cannot order this assassination." While Deferre was excited at the opportunity of eliminating Carlos, he was frustrated in the knowledge that the DST were unable to act independently as they were responsible only for France's internal security and forbidden to carry out International operations. Because of the bitter rivalry that existed between the DST, Action Service and the newly named DGSE, Deferre reluctantly passed on the information to Colonel Proteau's fledgling intelligence unit. Anxious to prove himself and his group, Proteau personally led a team to Gstaad at the allotted time where they disguised themselves as tourists and waited for their quarry. The wait was in vain as no sign could be found of Carlos ever having been in the area. An embarrassed Bonnet later challenged Siddel on the accuracy of his information only to be told that the CIA had confirmed the story by submitting their informant to a "lie detector" test, a method that had come under increasing criticism for it's vast inaccuracies. In the following months, despite exhaustive investigations, neither the DGSE, the DST or Proteau's unit, could uncover any useable information regarding Carlos. In frustration, the DGSE approached Carlos's sponsor, the Syrian government, and used diplomatic means to plead their case for the cessation of all Syrian sponsored acts of terrorism in French territories. After long periods of negotiations which involved threats of retaliation and the promise of closer relations with France, the Syrians agreed to a mutual non-aggression pact, even though they had vehemently denied any involvement in acts of terrorism. When pressed about Carlos, the Syrians described him as a non-entity who had destroyed himself with alcohol and drugs. Whether the description of Carlos was accurate or not, the pact succeeded in preventing any further acts of violence for almost a year. On August 25, 1983 a large explosion destroyed the fourth floor and blew the roof off the "Maison de France" in West Berlin. The blast, caused by an estimated twenty to thirty kilos of explosive, demolished the French Consulate, a cultural centre, a suite of offices and a restaurant. One young man who had entered the building to present a petition to the consul protesting against French nuclear testing in the South Pacific, died when he was buried under tons of falling masonry. Flying debris wounded twenty-two others, who were either in the building or on the street outside. Johannes Weinrich
(POLICE)
The blast had been planned by Johannes Weinrich and carried out by one of his associates. The Stasi had previously taken the explosives used in the bombing from Weinrich when he had attempted to smuggle them into East Berlin a year earlier. After a long period of terse negotiations by Weinrich and Carlos, the East Germans gave the explosives back. Weinrich later gave evidence that he had smuggled a bag containing the explosives across the West German border and gave them to his contact in the Syrian Embassy in Berlin for safe keeping until they were needed for the "Maison de France" attack. | In early September, Carlos sent a letter to West Germany's Interior Minister, Friedrich Zimmermann claiming responsibility for the attack. Included in the letter was a detailed floor plan indicating where the bomb had been planted. The document also called for the release of Gabrielle Krocher-Tiedemann and promised further retaliation if any action was taken against her. Ironically, Krocher-Tiedemann was later released without the need for further intervention when trial witnesses refused to testify against her. With confidence high after the success of the "Maison de France" bombing, Carlos finalised plans for his next attack on France. The target was the sophisticated TGV high-speed train service between Marseille and Paris. At 7.34pm on December 31 1983, as the Paris-bound express approached a small town in the Rhone valley, a bomb exploded in one of the carriages tearing large holes in the roof and walls. Although the train was nearly empty, two passengers died instantly and dozens more were injured. Forty minutes later, another bomb ripped through another TGV, which was stopped at Saint Charles station in Marseille. The blast, which was centred in a luggage compartment, killed two passengers who were standing on the platform and injured another thirty-four. Within days of the bombings, Carlos sent letters to three separate news agencies claiming responsibility for the bombings as revenge for a French air strike against a terrorist training camp in Lebanon the previous month. A day later another bomb destroyed the French Cultural Centre in Tripoli. Although he didn't claim responsibility at the time, the attack was also credited to Carlos. The latest round of attacks caused great concern for the Stasi as one of the letters claiming responsibility for the train bombings had been posted from within East Berlin and they feared that the west would blame them for harbouring Carlos. Some months later, during renewed trade talks between the U.S. State Department and Eastern European states, the subject of protection of terrorists came up. Following the talks, many of the Eastern European states distanced themselves from Carlos and banned him from entering their territories. East Germany was the first country to impose the ban followed by Romania and Czechoslovakia. Finding the doors of Europe closing against him, Carlos returned to Aden to take part in a meeting of Palestinian extremists but quickly realised that he was no longer aligned with their cause. With his support network crumbling around him, the "Jackal" was in dire need of a safe lair. |
Carlos learned of the arrest a day later while waiting in Budapest but it took him a full week to respond. His response, in the form of a letter, was addressed to Gaston Deffere, the French Minister of the Interior, demanding the release of Kopp and Breguet within thirty days and their safe passage out of France. It contained no threats of any kind ending simply with, "We hope that this affair will end soon and in a happy way." It was signed, "Carlos - Organisation of Arab armed struggle - Arm of the Arab Revolution" and bore a sample of Carlos's thumbprints. The letter was given to Christa-Margot Froelich, a woman that Weinrich had recruited from the German Revolutionary Cells, who took it from Budapest to the French Embassy in The Hague where it was passed on to Ambassador Jurgensen with a covering letter instructing him to take it to Deffere. Although both Carlos and Deffere had wanted the letter kept a secret, it's contents were later printed in a Paris newspaper angering both parties. Against his advisors wishes, Deffere began negotiations with Carlos through his envoy Jacques Verges, a prominent defence attorney who had a history as a communist revolutionary. Verges lobbied the French government for the release of the prisoners on several occasions but was turned down. As the trial of Kopp and Breguet approached, the judge in charge of the proceedings dropped the charge of attempted murder and ordered the pair to stand trial on April 15 in a magistrate's court where they would receive lighter sentences.  Capitole after the bombing
(POLICE)
While the legal machinations continued, the thirty-day deadline that Carlos had set was almost up with no indication that the French authorities would accede to his requests. Although his letter did not contain any direct threats, the SDECE believed that a reprisal was inevitable. They did not have to wait long. On March 15, ten days before the deadline, five kilos of explosives were detonated in the French Cultural Centre in Beirut wounding five people. Four days after the deadline had passed a bomb ripped apart a section of the Capitole, the Trans Europe express train that runs between Paris and Toulouse, killing five passengers and injuring thirty others. Responsibility for the bombing was later claimed on Carlos's behalf by a group calling themselves Terrorist International which was a front for the Basque ETA group that Carlos had hired to bomb the train in exchange for weapons. The bomb, which was carried in a small suitcase, had been placed in the VIP section of the train. A later inquiry revealed that Paris Mayor and former President Jacques Chirac should have been on the train at the time but had changed his plans at the last moment. | On April 5, the Red Army Faction sent another letter to The Hague on Carlos's behalf threatening additional violence if Kopp and Breguet were not released. When the demands were not met by April 15, Guy Cavallo, a French embassy employee stationed in Beirut was gunned down when he answered a knock at the door. His wife, who was seven months pregnant at the time, was also killed in the attack. While the authorities described the man as a lowly employee of the embassy, he was in reality an SDECE agent. This fact, together with the information concerning Chirac's travel plans, indicated that Carlos had a very well developed intelligence network.  Rue Marbeuf aftermath
(POLICE)
On April 21, another bomb exploded outside the French embassy in Vienna, killing an Austrian policeman who was guarding the building. At 9.02am on April 22, as Kopp and Breguet were led into court, a massive car bomb exploded outside a restaurant in Rue Marbeuf. Above the restaurant were the offices of Al Watan al Arabi. By the time the smoke had cleared, one woman was dead, ten people were seriously injured while fifty-eight others escaped with minor injuries. The same afternoon Magdelana Kopp was sentenced to four years in prison while Breguet was given five years. Within hours of the verdict, Deffere announced the expulsion of two Syrian diplomats and explained to the media that the expulsions were not linked to the Marbeuf bombing but were in relation to previous spying offences. | Several weeks later a grenade was fired at an accommodation block of the French Consulate building in Beirut but no injuries were reported. Two weeks later, a large bomb exploded inside the French Embassy grounds in Beirut killing eleven and wounding twenty-seven. In June, Christa-Margot Froelich, the woman who had carried the letter of demand to The Hague and was suspected of driving the car containing the bomb to Rue Marbeuf, was arrested at Leonardo da Vinci airport in Rome. Froelich was travelling under a false German passport and was carrying a suitcase that contained over three kilos of explosive, detonators and an alarm clock. She was later convicted and sentenced to six years. In a later incident, a group of gunmen supposedly sent by another terrorist, Abu Nidal, attacked the patrons of Jo Goldberg's restaurant in a Jewish neighbourhood in the heart of Paris. After throwing a grenade through the window, the gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons killing four and wounding another thirty, many of them seriously. While Carlos was not directly linked with the Goldberg attack, the SDECE believed that it was carried out on his behalf. Over the ensuing months Carlos considered many other plans to secure the release of his wife and her accomplice but none came to fruition and the pair were left to languish in jail.
A Fall From Grace In the early hours of May 4, 1985, Magdalena Kopp was released from her French prison and whisked away to West Germany by agents of the DST who were determined to get her out of France as quickly as possible. Despite the campaign of terror that Carlos had waged to secure her release, she served all but one year of her original sentence. With a reputation as one of the world's most dangerous women, she had served her time in exemplary fashion and secured a remission of her previous sentence for her good behaviour. After being handed over to the West German police late in the evening, she was allowed to go and stay with her mother in the town where she was born. Within hours of her arrival, she received a phone call from Carlos and shortly after left for Frankfurt where she was met by one of her husband's accomplices who escorted her to Damascus. Five months later, Breguet was also released from prison. He too had been a model prisoner and had re-educated himself while serving time. He was later contacted by Carlos but refused to rejoin the group, preferring instead to return to his family. After meeting Kopp in Damascus, Carlos took her to his new hideout in Budapest but after several months the Hungarian government evicted them. After their expulsion from Hungary, Carlos sent Kopp back to Damascus while he flew to Baghdad. Anxious to secure a home base, Carlos sent one of his men to Tripoli to gauge the level of support there but was informed that Qathafi had lost faith in him and his group and refused to offer support or asylum in Libya. In desperation, Carlos turned to Cuba for support but was told that he would only be granted a visa for a few days. Finally, Syria offered him protection in exchange for providing certain "services" to repay their hospitality. Once he was settled in Syria, Carlos took his heavily pregnant wife on a trip to Prague. Travelling under false diplomatic passports, the couple entered Czechoslovakia with the intention of retrieving a large sum of money that Carlos had deposited in a local bank. Their plan was foiled when the Czech secret service learned of their presence and evicted them. They returned to Damascus where Carlos lived in semi-luxury under a new identity as a Mexican businessman.  Carlos, the family man
On August 17 1986, Kopp gave birth to a daughter who was named Elba Rosa, after both her grandmothers. Despite his host's earlier demands for his services, Carlos soon learned that the Syrians had no use for his particular skills. Eventually, Carlos was informed that he could only stay in Damascus if he remained inactive. He spent most of his time at home with his family and entertaining the occasional guest. At thirty-nine-years-old, Carlos had been forced into early retirement. The world's intelligence community considered him a has-been. According to Vincent Cannistraro, the CIA's head of counter-terrorism at that time: "Carlos was only a historical curiosity...a rather sad character. A Communist whisky-barrel who doesn't believe in God and who was no longer of use to Moslem governments. The only reason that operations were blamed on him is because people didn't now who had committed them. In Damascus, he was dead drunk most of the time." Mossad also considered him a non-entity and even the DST dismissed him as not worthy of their attention even though they knew where he was living. Carlos may have lived out his days in virtual obscurity had it not been for two important events in history. The first was the collapse of the Berlin wall in November 1989, which saw the dissolution of the system that had protected Carlos and his cadre from scrutiny. The second and most important event occurred in August 1990 when Saddam Hussein ordered his army to occupy neighbouring Kuwait. In the aftermath of the invasion, Western intelligence agencies received information that Hussein was mounting a terror campaign, principally against the United States, and had brought Carlos out of retirement to lead it. In response to the information, the CIA and it's British counterpart MI6, sent agents into the field to find Carlos. With the onset of war in the Gulf, Syria, in opposition to the Kuwait invasion, adopted a more co-operative stance with the West. In support of this newfound alliance, Syrian President Haffez al-Assad made the decision to oust Carlos and directed his intelligence service to assist the CIA and the DST to capture him. Although al-Assad openly agreed with the plan, he refused to allow Carlos to be snatched from within Syria, which meant that he would have to be taken as he left the country. One such opportunity presented itself when Carlos, running short of money, made plans to return to Czechoslovakia a second time to retrieve his funds. Syrian intelligence passed on the details of the forthcoming trip to the CIA but the Americans were forbidden by law to seize terrorists in foreign countries unless they had committed crimes against the United States. Anxious to capitalise on the information, the CIA passed on the information to the DST but their plan to take Carlos was put on hold when he cancelled his travel plans. Finally, in September 1991, Carlos was expelled from Syria and travelled to Libya under a diplomatic passport. He arrived at Tripoli airport in company with Kopp, their five-year-old-daughter, Carlos's mother and Johannes Weinrich. Carlos told Libyan airport officials that he and his party had been chased out of Syria and wished to stay in Libya. They were allowed to stay in the country for several days but their application to stay indefinitely was rejected and they were forced to return to Syria. The Syrians were not impressed that Carlos had returned and suggesting that he should go to Lebanon. Carlos refused and instead sent Kopp and Weinrich to Yemen to pave the way for his arrival but again their application was rejected and they were sent back to Damascus on the return flight. A month later, aided by the Syrians, he and his party managed to slip quietly into Jordan undetected. Curiously, neither the DST nor any other agency, tried to apprehend him during his travels. Soon after his arrival in Amman, the Jordanian authorities became aware of his presence and allowed him to stay for several months. During this time Carlos left Magdelana Kopp for another woman, a twenty-three-year-old Jordanian named Abdel Salam Adhman Jarrar Lana. The separation was amiable with Kopp retaining custody of their daughter and in company with her mother-in-law, left Jordan to live in Venezuela. Within weeks, Carlos married Abdel under Moslem law, which allows polygamy. For the next two years, Carlos continued his search for a country that would provide him with a safe haven and eventually, after having been rejected by Cyprus and Iran, he settled in Khartoum in the Sudan under the protection of Sheik Hassan al-Turabi, the powerful Moslem fundamentalist leader. Carlos quickly settled in to his new life in Khartoum spending much of his time socialising and revelling at the local nightclubs and restaurants, blissfully unaware that his life of relative freedom would soon be at an end.
Taken By Force In order to retrieve Carlos from his new hiding place, the French government knew that their only option was to convince the Sudanese to give him up. After inviting the heads of the two Sudanese intelligence sections to Paris, the DST and the DGSE offered to sell them much needed communications equipment and even supplied them with satellite pictures of their enemies positions. The courtship seemed to be going well when the CIA received a tip that gave the exact location of Carlos. The French immediately sent Phillipe Rondot, the intelligence officer who had previously tracked Carlos down to Algiers and Colombia, to Sudan to confirm if the information was correct. On his arrival he met with the Sudanese authorities that promptly denied any knowledge of the terrorists presence. Rondot decided to find out for himself and lost no time in locating Carlos and was able to take photographs of him with a concealed camera as proof of his whereabouts.  Carlos's home in Khartoum
Faced with this new undeniable evidence, the Sudanese authorities agreed that Carlos was a guest in their country and the negotiations to extract him from his hideout began. To help sweeten the deal, the French Minister of the Interior, Charles Pasqua invited Sheik Hassan al-Turabi to Paris. In the first round of talks, al-Turabi made it clear that to give up a man that was a guest in his country amounted to treachery. Pasqua countered by offering to approach the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, on Sudan's behalf, to secure loans to eventually erase Sudan's foreign debt. Although Pasqua did not have the authority to back up his offers, the discussions opened the way for future negotiations. Further pressure was applied to the Sudanese government when the Egyptian secret service also tracked Carlos to Khartoum. With multiple countries now seeking Carlos's expulsion, the Sudanese were being pressured into a decision, give up Carlos or be denounced for sheltering terrorists. The final straw came when a secret video of Carlos at a party was shown to al-Turabi. He was already aware of his guest's reputation for partying, drinking and carousing with women and as a devout Moslem it offended him. Finally in August 1994, al-Turabi advised the French that they were going to give Carlos up because as al-Turabi explained to one of his senior officials: "We welcomed him as a combatant, someone who fought for the Palestinian cause, for noble causes. Now he's a hoodlum, his behaviour is shameful. He drinks and goes out with women so much that I don't know if he's a Moslem. Given that his presence has become a real danger we are going to hand him over. We have no regrets. Because of his behaviour, we are absolved from blame." Al-Turabi made one final stipulation; he insisted that Carlos was not to be harmed during his capture, as he did not want any reprisals against his decision. On Saturday, August 13, Carlos was admitted to the Ibn Khaldoun hospital in Khartoum for a minor operation to correct a low sperm count. Since his daughter had left with Kopp, Carlos had been anxious to father another child with his new wife but had been unable to. Following the procedure, Carlos was recovering in his room under the protection of his bodyguards, when a Sudanese policeman entered his room and advised him that his department had uncovered a plot to kill him. Carlos was then offered a transfer to a military hospital so he could be better protected while he fully recovered. Carlos agreed and under an armed escort, he and his wife were taken from the hospital, but rather than being taken to a military hospital, the pair were taken firstly to the Sudanese State Security headquarters before being driven to a villa in a suburb called Taif, close to the home of Sheik al-Turabi. Any objections that Carlos had regarding the change of plans were quickly dispelled when he was told it was for his own protection. Carlos was less than impressed when they arrived at the newest destination. The villa was in poor condition and had very few appointments. After their first night in the villa, the couple were anxious to go home but soon realised that they would have to spend a second day there. In an attempt to make life more bearable, Carlos sent his wife back to their home to pick-up some of their needed possessions. When she had not returned by 10pm, Carlos went to bed. At approximately 3am, he was woken by a group of men pinning him to the bed. Before he could resist, he was handcuffed hand and foot and had a thin hood pulled over his head. A doctor then stepped forward and injected him in the thigh with a hypodermic containing a tranquilliser. A stretcher was produced and Carlos was bundled unceremoniously into a van that drove him to Khartoum airport where an executive jet was standing by. By the time the jet had cleared Sudanese airspace, Carlos realised that his captors were French, what he did not know was that he was in the hands of the DST. He was then placed in a sack and bound tightly, with only his hooded head protruding. Six-and-a half hours later, the jet landed at Villacoublay military airport outside Paris where he was handed over to another DST team and driven to their Paris headquarters. As soon as he was unloaded and taken inside the building, Judge Jean-Louis Bruguiere issued Carlos with a national arrest warrant for the murder of two DST agents at Rue Toullier in 1979. By issuing such a warrant, the French government avoided the cumbersome process of applying to Interpol for an extradition order. To confirm the prisoner's identity, his fingerprints were taken and compared with those lifted from drinking glasses at Rue Toullier and the thumbprints from the letter of demand that was sent to Gaston Deferre. Satisfied that they had the right man, the DST then escorted Carlos to La Sante, a maximum-security prison. The official announcement of Carlos's capture differed somewhat from the truth, when Charles Pasqua announced that the Sudanese government had assisted in the service of the arrest warrant and the DST had then captured Carlos when he landed at Villacoublay airfield, when they had in fact violated several International laws by taking Carlos out of Sudan by force.
Trials And Tribulations On Friday, December 12, 1997, Carlos was led into a courtroom in the Palais de Justice and placed in the dock. Within minutes of the trials commencement, Carlos, charged formally as Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, demanded that the proceedings be abandoned on the grounds that he had been arrested illegally. His pleas fell on deaf ears. The trial ground on as the prosecution called a string of witnesses to give testimony to prove his involvement, not only in the Rue Toullier shooting but also the Marbeuf bombing. Carlos aided by several attorneys attempted to counter the evidence as best he could but the evidence was overwhelming. As the trial progressed, Carlos argued with his lawyers and hired others before eventually dismissing them all, including his chief counsel, Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, the lawyer who had defended Magdelana Kopp fifteen years earlier. When the last of his legal team had departed, Carlos was left to conduct his own defence. Over the next eight days, Carlos tried every tactic he could think of to counter the prosecutions case asserting that the crimes that he stood accused of were crimes of war and he as a revolutionary had been merely another combatant in an International arena. After a rambling closing statement that ran for four hours, Carlos ended his defence and the jury retired to consider their verdict. On December 23, 1997, after three hours and forty-eight minutes of deliberation, the jury returned with their verdict, guilty on all counts, the sentence - life imprisonment. Ironically, the death sentence that Carlos should have received for his crimes had been abolished years earlier by President Francois Mitterrand, the same man who had ordered his agents to find Carlos and kill him.  Carlos the prisoner
To this day Carlos is held in the maximum-security wing of Le Sante prison. He is allowed few visitors and spends his time reading, writing and watching television. There have been several stories relating to certain "special privileges" that he is supposedly receiving in prison but like much of his life, the myth seems greater than the truth. One thing is certain, the man who began life as Ilich Ramirez Sanchez and named himself Carlos the Jackal, is now known by a less flamboyant title. In Le Sante he is known simply as "Detainee 872686/X" and probably will be for the rest of his life. Love and Death by Marilyn Bardsley I am willing to admit — but not apologize for —my prejudice. I am deeply prejudiced against one Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos, Carlos the Jackal and everything he represents. "Playboy" Carlos with his
mother and sister
I wasn't always prejudiced against him. When he burst into media consciousness in the early 1970's, "Carlos the Jackal" had the dark glamour associated with being the most feared terrorist figure of that era: a suave playboy to boot, a kind of James Bond figure, hanging around embassy cocktail parties. In the confusing social turmoil of the Vietnam War era, he could have been looked at, perhaps, as even a freedom fighter. After all, in the 1970's and 1980's, terrorism is something that didn't happen in the United States. Terrorism was remote: it happened thousands of miles away, to people we didn't know and was abstract and unreal like a spy book or a movie. Like most Americans, I really didn't spend much time thinking about terrorism or Carlos, unless the New York Times or network news thought I should. | The next time I remember hearing about Carlos the Jackal was in 1972 when he organized the infamous murder of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. That sad event was also destined to fade from my consciousness until I realized that my school friend of many years, David Berger, was one of the victims. He had left the comfortable cocoon of Shaker Heights, Ohio, to join the Israeli wrestling team. Why, I asked myself numbly, would anyone want to kill David Berger? You couldn't find a nicer guy. Suddenly terrorism was not so abstract and death had the familiar face of a friend my own age. Never again would I confuse Carlos with some glamorous freedom fighter. I didn't give a thought to Carlos for the next 25 years, when I heard that he had been caught in 1997. I was momentarily pleased and then put him completely out of my mind.  Sketch of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez
(aka Carlos) in 1997
(AP)
Now, I read in the Wall Street Journal that the 52-year-old imprisoned terrorist is getting married to Isabelle Coutant-Peyre, his 48-year-old lawyer. She describes him as "an exceptionally warm man." The subheadlines intrigued me, "In Prison in Paris, the Terrorist, and Isabelle Coutant-Peyre Share Love, Cigars and Marxism." I read on with interest. Had this cold-blooded murderer of young athletes and scores of others mellowed with age? I supposed that several years in prison allowed for much self-analysis and introspection. I read on that he had converted to Islam in 1975, which seemed to support my initial thought that this bad man had repented and made peace with his god. | I began to think that was also good, despite the image of David Berger that floated into my consciousness. Then I read how this "exceptionally warm man" condoned the September 11 terrorist attacks and sent a letter to a Venezuelan newspaper claiming that the victims of the attacks were "nearly all enemy soldiers," something that I had not appreciated as I watched the families of these "enemy soldiers" on CNN in their most desolate hours.  Recent photo of
Carlos
(CORBIS)
As I marveled at how the Jackal's bride could reconcile her tender vision of him with his exultation at the murder of so many innocents, she answered my question. She understands that Carlos has killed many people, but that's okay, because she and he both believe in the communist ideal. I had never really thought of terrorism as a set of ideals. |  Isabella Coutant-
Peyre (AP)
How fortunate for Isabelle and her chubby terrorist that he was convicted in France, a sophisticated society that allows him — presumably with the approval of the French taxpayers —to spend the rest of his life smoking Cuban cigars, cuddling with Isabelle (whose heterosexual competition in prison for his affections is limited), chatting with her at his whim outside the normal prison constraints on visitors, and commending the enemies of his captors. Had he been convicted in a society less sophisticated and less tolerant of murderers, he might have ended up on a prison gurney with a powerful IV. | But even the French, with their traditional soft spot for {l'amour}, are balking at this marriage. The Paris prosecutor's office is investigating whether the Jackal's inflammatory remarks constitute a justification of terrorism, which is a crime in France. Jean-Louis Bruguiere, the prominent counter-terrorist expert who put Carlos away, is convinced that the Jackal is manipulating Isabelle as he has so many women in the past. The Wall St. Journal cites the example of Carlos' relationship with his current wife, Magdalena Kopp, a former member of the Baader-Meinhoff Gang also known as the Red Army Faction: When she was arrested carrying explosives in France in 1982, [Carlos] organized a string of deadly bombings to pressure the French government to release her. After she was set free in 1985, the couple had a daughter and eventually married. Carlos, Magdalena and child
Magdalena's current view of her husband ("a meglomaniac madman" who "killed without blinking") is more consistent with the Western World's view of him. |  Recent photo of
Isabella (CORBIS)
My admittedly prejudiced view of Carlos is that he is a thoroughly evil man, who has manipulated the French government into serving his needs and the needs of his lady friends. And by doing so, he has escaped the punishment he deserves. Far from opposing his marriage to Isabelle, I believe it should go forward — but only if they are allowed to live together in conjugal bliss in an 8X8 prison cell for the rest of their lives. |
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