Ilich Ramirez Sanchez (12 October 1949-), better known as "Carlos the Jackal", was a Venezuelan leftist terrorist who was a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) revolutionary group undre Wadie Haddad, later forming his own group, the Organization of Armed Struggle. Sanchez used the pseudonym "Carlos" to carry out his terrorist attacks for Palestine, taking his name from President Carlos Andres Perez of Venezuela, and after a Guardian correspondent found "Day of the Jackal" among his possessions, he gained his nickname "Carlos the Jackal". Carlos carried out a string of terrorist attacks across France in the 1980s in addition to working on behalf of Ba'athist Iraq, the Syrian Arab Republic, and Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in the 1970s, having safehouses across Eastern Europe and maintaining contact with the KGB and Stasi. Eventually, he became so dangerous that the communist countries had to expel him from his sanctuaries in their lands, and US President George H.W. Bush exerted pressure on Syria to extradite him. Carlos was arrested in Sudan in 1994 for murdering a French DST intelligence agent and two counter-intelligence agents, and he was sentenced to life behind bars.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez was born on 12 October 1949 in Michelena, Tachira, Venezuela to a Marxist father who named him after Vladimir Lenin (his middle name was "Ilyich"). In 1966 he attended the Transcontinental Conference with his father, and he spent the summer at Camp Matanzas, a Cuban DGI-run guerrilla warfare camp near Havana, Cuba. In 1968 he enrolled at Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow, Soviet Union, a notorious hotbed for recruiting foreign communists for the USSR. In 1970 he was expelled due to misconduct.
Joining the guerrilla struggle[]
Carlos meeting Wadie Haddad
In July 1970, Sanchez travelled to Beirut, Lebanon, where he joined the Marxist-Leninist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group. He was trained along with other foreign volunteers in the outskirts of Amman, Jordan, and he studied at the H4 finishing school, run by Iraqi officers near the Syria-Iraq border. He fought in Black September that year and was wounded in the leg, and when the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its PFLP allies were forced out of Jordan, he returned to Lebanon with them. Wadie Haddad trained him, and he took on the pseudonym of "Carlos" (after Carlos Andres Perez, a leftist Venezuelan president) and converted to Islam. He later attended courses at the Polytechnic of Central London (University of Westminister) in the United Kingdom, still working for PFLP.
Celebrity status[]
In 1973, Carlos aproached Haddad in hopes of being given an assignment as Mohamed Boudia's replacement as head of the PFLP in Western Europe, but Haddad told him that he would be contacted by Michel Moukharbal (also called Andre) and work for him; he was too young to be given command. On 30 December 1973 he tried to assassinate Jewish businessman Joseph Sieff in St. John's Wood in northwest London, firing a bullet at his head while he was in the bath - this was supposed to be revenge for the assassination of Boudia. However, the bullet bounced off his upper lip-nose area, knocking him unconscious, and Carlos' gun jammed, forcing him to flee. Carlos later launched a failed bombing attack on the Bank Hapoalim, and he then headed to France, where he launched car bomb attacks on three pro-Israeli French newspapers. On 13 and 17 January 1975, he failed in RPG attacks on El Al planes at Orly Airport, near Paris, in collaboration with Johannes Weinrich and the Revolutionary Cells (the first time, Croatian independence fighters claimed responsibility due to a Yugoslav plane being struck by the rocket). Despite the failures of these attacks, they gained Carlos notoriety, and he became a celebrity in the news for his terrorist attacks.
OPEC siege[]
Carlos during the 1975 OPEC siege
On 27 June 1975, Moukharbal gave up his identity under interrogation from the DST, and DST agents headed to a Paris house party hosted by Carlos and his Venezuelan and French student friends, where Carlos was questioned by a detective. He denied knowing who Moukharbal was, Carlos killed the two agents and Moukharbal, and he fled to Beirut through Brussels, Belgium. On 21 December 1975, Carlos carried out the OPEC siege in Vienna, Austria with a six-man PFLP team in an operation that had been planned for a long time. They took over 60 hostages and killed three of them, and 42 hostages were released to Algiers after the Austrians agreed to broadcast a communique about the Palestinian cause every two hours, as Carlos threatened to kill a hostage every 15 minutes. Muammar Gaddafi's personal pilot Neville Atkinson flew Carlos, Gabriele Kroecher-Tiedemann, Hans-Joachim Klein, and a number of others to Tripoli in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, where more hostages were released. Carlos took with him $50,000,000 that was paid to him by the Austrians in exchange for releasing the hostages, paid by Saudi Arabia on the behalf of Iran. Carlos left Algeria for Libya and then South Yemen, where Wadie Haddad fired him for not executing Iranian Minister of Finance Jamshid Amuzgar and Oil Minister of Saudi Arabia Ahmed Zaki Yamani when demands were not met; he had released them into the hands of Algerian foreign minister Abdelaziz Bouteflika due to not being able to land in Libya and head to Iraq.
Establishing a network[]
Carlos in 1978
In September 1976 he was arrested and detained in Yugoslavia before being flown to Baghdad, Iraq. Determined on continuing his revolutionary struggle, he founded the Organization of Armed Struggle, connecting with East Germany's Stasi secret police as well as Revolutionary Cells members Johannes Weinrich and his girlfriend Magdalena Kopp. He was given an office, safe houses in East Berlin, 75 support staff members, a serviced car, and the ability to carry a pistol in public. Carlos initially worked for Iraq from 1975 to 1978, but when he became a pawn of the Iraqi secret services, he decided that he wanted to work for someone else. Former PFLP member Kamal al-Issawi met with Carlos in Berlin after Haddad died on 28 March 1978, and he informed him that Syria was willing to provide him with support, money, and diplomatic cover if he worked with them. Carlos was also approached by KGB chief Yuri Andropov, who enlisted his assistance in a plot to assassinate President of Egypt Anwar Sadat, whose peace with Israel was considered a betrayal of the Eastern Bloc cause. In exchange, the USSR would give unlimited financial support to the group.
Forging alliances[]
Carlos switched from being a mercenary of Iraq to Syria, and he carried out several attacks for them. Carlos went on to take Kopp from Weinrich and eventually married her, and Carlos' group became one of the most infamous terrorist groups in the country. Carlos was in contact with Syrian Air Force intelligence chief Mohammed al-Khouly and his deputy Haitham Said, and al-Khouly told him that he would give him connections to the KGB and Stasi, would be given more weapons and money than he needed, and a storage of weapons at the Syrian embassy in East Berlin. Carlos also had safehouses in Prague, Sofia, and Budapest, but the Stasi in East Germany and the Ministry of the Interior in Hungary both spied on Carlos' group to prevent them from linking them to their attacks.
Hungarian Minister of the Interior Lajos Karasz sent policemen to spy on Carlos, with the police even entering Carlos' villa one time and telling the airport police to not let them leave; they did so after finding Syrian weapons cached in the house. One night, Carlos fired a pistol at Hungarian police waiting outside of the house in their car, not injuring any of them, but unleashing his anger. The Hungarian police later arrived at his house, and they informed him that he had no right to organize attacks from Budapest, saying that he could see friends if he wished; the villa was strictly a safehouse and not a place to plan attacks from.
Carlos then headed to Tripoli, Libya, as al-Issawi informed him that his contacts in Tripoli wanted to see him. He met General Abdullah Zekri there, and Carlos expressed concern to him that Muammar Gaddafi might have made empty promises to him while asking Carlos to assassinate Sadat for him. Zekri told him to refer to Sadat as "the Big Boss" as a codename, and Carlos told him that Sadat was the most well-protected man in the Middle East. However, Zekri gave Carlos $200,000 as promised, leading to Carlos agreeing to take the contract before he left Tripoli at the airport.
Operations in Europe[]
In an East Berlin hotel, Carlos talked with Weinrich about a job for Nicolae Ceausescu attack on Radio Free Europe in Munich; teenagers in Romania wanted to listen to The Rolling Stones on RFE instead of the state radio, making mockery of Ceausescu. Ceausescu offered Carlos $1,000,000 for the job, and Weinrich told him that his ETA contact Erik, a bomb expert, could assist Carlos in the bombing as a favor in exchange for Carlos' shipping of weapons to his group. Weinrich fended off Stasi attempts to limit Carlos' activities, and Carlos made plans for more attacks. At his 30th birthday party on 12 October 1979, Carlos held a party at the Danubius Thermae Hotel in the Margitsziget area of central Budapest, where he met his former Venezuelan girlfriend again; she gave him Cuban flag cufflinks to represent the "flag of victory", while Carlos bought himself an orange sedan for himself and Magdalena. At the large party, attended by several friends of Carlos and Weinrich (as well as a band singing Arab music), Carlos was informed that the journalist Assem al-Joundi had sold his 1976 interview with Carlos to al-Watan al-Arabi, a paper run by Syrian dissidents based in Paris. Carlos told al-Issawi to shoot him in the back of the head in response, while al-Issawi told him that he would have to tell the Syrians of the death sentence; the Syrians were about to execute French ambassador to Lebanon Louis Delamare to force them to leave the country in Syrian hands during the Lebanese Civil War. After the operation in 1981, al-Khoury contacted Carlos, telling him that Syria needed Carlos and his group to take the fight to France on their own ground: Europe. Carlos was to bomb the office of al-Watan al-Arabi in Paris, as it nearly ruined the plot to kill Delamare, and it was funded by Iraqi intelligence and led by Syrian enemy Abu Zahr. al-Khoury then informed him that al-Joundi had miraculously survived, being blind in one eye after being shot; upon waking up one morning in bed with Magdalena, Carlos was told by Weinrich that the Muslim Brothers had already killed Anwar Sadat, with Gaddafi's $4,000,000 coming to nothing. Carlos hired Bruno Breguet and a local French woman to bomb the newspaper on Rue Marbeuf, and Breguet told him of the location of the paper as well as Abu Zahr's schedule. Erik from the ETA met Magdalena and Breguet at a cafe, and Erik gave them the key to a white Peugeot that contained the car bomb that was to be used in the newspaper bombing.
=== War with France ===
The bombing of al-Watan al-Arabi
When Breguet and Kopp were arrested, he tried to lobby the French government for their release. Carlos wrote to Minister of the Interior Gaston Defferre, demanding their release in 30 days. He went on to say that his organization was not at war with the socialist-led France, and that he would make war if his friends were not released. Defferre was for negotiations, but Mayor Jacques Chirac of Paris (future President of France) was dead-set against it, as were Defferre's advisers.
The German woman, "Ms. Blau", responsible for the bombings in France
France ultimately refused to release Breguet and Kopp, so Carlos bombed the Paris-Toulouse TGV train on 29 March 1982, killing 5 and wounding 77 (the attack targeted Jacques Chirac's VIP wagon on the La Capitole train, with Guy Cavallo being killed two weeks later in Beirut); he car-bombed the Libyan newspaper Al-Watan al-Arabi in Paris on 22 April 1982, killing 1 and wounding 63 (a German woman using the name "Ms. Blau" fitted a car with a bomb in Postojna, Yugoslavia before driving through Italy to Paris, where she parked the car in front of the paper's office - the bombing took place on the same day as the start of Kopp and Breguet's trials); bombing the Gare Saint-Charles in Marseille on 31 December 1983, killing 2 and wounding 33 and the Marseille-Paris TGV train that same day, killing 3 and wounding 12. Carlos made connections to the Soviet Union's KGB, following Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev's orders to not carry out attacks when he headed to West Germany in 1981. When France bombed a PFLP training camp in Lebanon as a part of the Multinational Force in Lebanon during the Lebanese Civil War, Carlos killed 1 man and wounded 22 in the Maison de France in West Berlin, West Germany. His actions made him visible, and the Hungarian police met him for one last time in Budapest, telling Carlos and Weinrich that they needed to dismantle their operation in Hungary as quickly as possible, as the French police had tracked them down to Hungary. Hungary could not afford to be the subject of international pressure, so Carlos was told to leave for good.
Stay in Damascus[]
Carlos in Damascus in 1985
Carlos at the beach in Syria in 1989
In 1985, Kopp was released by the French for good behavior, but she was banned from entering France, and she lived in Neu-Ulm with her mother until Carlos called her. Upon arriving in Damascus, Carlos found out that neither East Germany nor Romania wanted to let Carlos have sanctuary, so he would have to stay in Syria disguised as a French businessman. He told Kopp that he did favors for the Syrians, with Hafez al-Assad's fear of the rise of Islam leading to Carlos targeting the leaders of the Muslim Brotherhood in West Germany; Abdul Wahid Hadi was assassinated in Dusseldorf along with his wife. On 17 August 1986, Magdalena gave birth to Rosa Elba in Damascus, Carlos' only child. However, the end of the Cold War in 1989 and the fall of the socialist bloc led to the world losing interest in Carlos' group, and Haitham Said informed Carlos, Weinrich, and al-Issawi that Syria wanted nothing to do with the group, telling them to leave Syria within the next week. US President George H.W. Bush himself asked for Carlos' extradition, forcing high-level Syrian authorities to request the deporation of the terrorists. He decided to go to Tripoli with his group, but Zekri met him at the airport, telling him that Colonel Gaddafi did not want Carlos in his country anymore, sending this things back to Damascus. The group once more returned to Damascus, and an angry Magdalena decided to leave Carlos, as she had considered leaving for two years; she did not want to raise her daughter in poor conditions (Carlos shot one of his own men from behind while Elba was in the next room), and she wanted to move in with Carlos' brother in Venezuela, who had become wealthy from construction. Carlos was left with his lover, the dental student Lana Jarrar, and his defeated fellow terrorists.
Life in Sudan and capture[]
Carlos arriving in Khartoum, Sudan
Carlos giving a lesson on guerrilla warfare
Carlos and his new wife Lana Jarrar were able to move to Khartoum, Sudan with assistance from the Islamist government of Iran in 1994, and Carlos brought with him Weinrich, al-Issawi, and the remnants of his group. Carlos gave his gratitude to the Iranian governmental officials, who told him that there would be a time for him to help the Islamic revolution. Carlos was told to instruct Sudanese men on guerrilla tactics, teaching them about Lawrence of Arabia's tactics.
One day, two Sudanese men kidnapped him as he was walking down the stairs of his apartment, putting a bag over his head and taking him to meet the Sudanese government's Islamic guide, Hassan al-Turabi. al-Turabi told Carlos that there were laws against prostitution in Sudan, but Carlos knew that al-Turabi did not kidnap him just to lecture him. al-Turabi told Carlos that he needed guns, and he knew that Carlos was skilled in the arms trade. Carlos decided to help his hosts out by supplying weapons to the Sudanese government during the Sudanese Civil War, and he was given asylum in return.
Capture in 1994[]
Carlos at a party in Khartoum with his wife
Little did Carlos know that Kamal al-Issawi, his close friend, was secretly stabbing him in the back. He worked with Haitham Said of the Syrian secret service, giving up Carlos' cover of "Abdallah Barakhat" and his address in Khartoum. When he attended a party with Carlos, he took a glass that Carlos had held and gave the fingerprints to DST, who relayed it to the CIA. This confirmed that Carlos was in Sudan, and Philippe Rondot of DST tracked Carlos down. Around this time, he had to have surgery on his testicles, and he also had a liposuction to get rid of his "love handles".
One day, a recovering Carlos was moved from the hospital by Sudanese soldiers who said that there was a plot against him, and he was to be moved to a military hospital. Carlos was taken to State Security Headquarters, where National Islamic Front secret service head Doctor Nafaa told him that he would be moved near Sheikh Turabi's house to keep him protected from the CIA. However, his wife was kidnapped when Carlos sent her home to pack a few things, and Carlos was gagged while sleeping and taken from his home by the Sudanese soldiers on 14 August 1994. Carlos was dragged to the runway, where he was put onto a plane with Rondot. Carlos woke up and asked where he was, and Rondot told him that he was now on his way to France, being property of the French government now. Carlos was finally captured, and he faced justice a few years later.
In 1997, Carlos was prosecuted and sentenced to life in prison for murdering two DST agents in Rue Toullier in Paris, and he was held in Poissy prison; he was also tried for bombing the Capitole train and Rue Marbeuf (he was never tried for the OPEC siege; his wife Lana Jarrar disappeared without a trace). While in prison, Carlos supported Osama bin Laden's anti-imperialist struggle, and he continued to hold Israel and the United States accountable for the conflict in the Middle East.