World News the Trail of Carlos the Jackal
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tIpv THE W1SHENG'kN POST WORLD NEWS THE TRAIL OF CARLOS THE JACKAL Illicit Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan-born terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal, had a reputation of almost legendary proportions. Terrorist operations attributed to Carlos before his arrest last August in Khartoum, Sudan, include: ' Attack on OPEC headquarters in • Bombing near the Champs Elysees in Vienna in which three people were Pans in which a pregnant woman was ■ Wounding of British millionaire killed and 11 were taken hostage. The killed and 63 people were injured. Edward Sieff, a Jew whose family owns cartel's oil ministers were taken to Marks and Spencer stores in London. North Africa in a hijacked plane in a $1 billion hostage drama. ' Bombings in Marseille's main railroad terminal and on the Paris- eTakeover of the French Embassy in MTh Marseille express train, killing five The Hague. •.Hijacking of an Air France jetliner to people and wounding 50. Entebbe, Uganda. • Bombing of the French cultural a Killing af two French intelligence 'ESL center in West Berlin, killing one person and injuring 23. agents who were investigating attacks • Bombing of the Paris-Toulouse on planes belonging to Israel's El Al express train, killing six people and SOURCE. Associated Press airlines at Paris's Orly Airport. wounding 15 others. The Terrorist Who Became Expendable By Jonathan C. Randal Jordanian passport after living for years Washingtoo Poet Foreign Service in Syria, Iraq and Libya, as well as Eastern Europe. KHARTOUM, Sudan "The American government knew all he end for Carlos the Jackal's about his presence here before the career came here in a backwater French," Turabi said. capital where he was known for T This seemed to reinforce reports heavytipping and hard drinking. that the United States tracked Carlos According to Sudanese and foreign sources, the notorious terrorist who had throughout his year-long sojourn in 4'1 • Khartoum and, since no American eluded capture for more than two • .„ TAisns„ decades before being apprehended last citizens were harmed in Carlos's August by Sudanese security police was operations, tipped off France, where he seized at a private Khartoum clinic while was wanted in the deaths of two under general anesthesia for a common counterintelligence agents investigating operation to improve circulation in the him in 1975 and of a dozen other testes—either to alleviate pain or to French citizens. After some early lesser escapades, increase fertility. REUTER He was handed over to French agents Terrorists board plane after seizing hostages at OPEC headquarters in Vienna in 1975. Carlos came to world attention in 1975 by a militantly Islamic Sudanese when he masterminded an attack on a government that said it had no use for a expendable soldiers from a war of apparently returned to Jordan after he meeting of oil ministers of the Marxist on a phony passport, then was another time and another place. was seized. Organization of Petroleum Exporting put on a French government executive Hassan Turabi, Sudan's spiritual guide Turabi said upon learning of Carlos's Countries at OPEC headquarters in jet and flown to Paris to face a string of who is thought to wield considerable presence from the French, 'I had him Vienna. Three people were killed and murder charges dating from the 1970s influence in government thinking, said told to leave as soon as possible." But 11 hostages, including oil ministers, and 1980s. He is awaiting trial. that if Carlos had arrived as a "refugee," when Turabi discovered some time later were taken to North Africa before By the time he was captured, Illich Sudan would have provided him safe that his increasingly unwelcome guest being released. Ramirez Sanchez, the Venezuelan-born haven. "Unfortunately for him," Turabi was still in Khartoum, '1 said, 'Since he The next year he reportedly was terrorist's given name, was 44 and said in an interview, "Carlos came on a refused to understand, give him to the involved in the hijacking of an Air France balding and at the end of his tether. He false passport with a lady supposed to be French.' It was not a difficult decision." jetliner to Uganda. In 1982 he was had become a victim of the Cold War's his wife," but who turned out not to be. It was made easier, Turabi said, upon accused in the bombing of a train in demise and the fickleness of the The woman was said to be a Jordanian learning that Carlos "had come from an France in which six people were killed, Sudanese government, which proudly of Palestinian ancestry and was treated Arab country which was in close contact and he was blamed in the 1983 bombings offers safe haven to beleaguered as Carlos's wife while he was in with the American government"—an of Marseille's main train station, in which Muslims regarded as renegades Khartoum. She accompanied him on his apparent reference to Jordan. Carlos is five people died, and of the French elsewhere, but not to what it considers public jaunts, but rarely spoke, and said to have traveled to Sudan on a See CARLOS, A25, CoL 1 CARLOS, From A23 the Armenian, Greek and Syrian counted a foreigner who closely fol- files were made public and blew his clubs, Carlos drew attention to him- lowed the incident, a senior Suda- cover there," the friend said. "With cultural center in West Berlin, where self, tipping waiters generously and nese official arrived and ordered the French pressing, the Sudanese one person was killed. pouring whiskey in a country officially Carlos freed after reducing the wanted to get rid of him, but either France sent two counterintelli- dry since 1983 and kept that way by charges to the equivalent of causing the countries they proposed for him gence investigators to Sudan, photo- public floggings for those caught a public disturbance. refused to take him or he refused the graphed Carlos and confronted Suda- drinking alcohol. "White Sudanese"—foreigners ones who would have him." nese authorities with the evidence. "He liked his liquor, liked women, who have become Sudanese citi- Despite persistent rumors that Turabi put the best possible face liked his Dutch cigars and made zens—who invited him to their clubs France paid off Sudan with money on surrendering Carlos, seeking to friends easily," said a man who knew chided Abdullah Barakat for never and satellite pictures of civil war reb- deflect charges that the Sudanese him well. inviting them to his home in the so- el positions in the south, there is no government harbors Islamic terror- When he had been drinking, Car- called New Extension near Khar- hard evidence of French military aid, ists from Egypt, Lebanon and other los was given to boasting about his toum airport. "Sure, it was odd," according to intelligence specialists. Middle East countries and offers official protection, and on at least said one "white Sudanese," but "in Carlos's fate has left an enduring them training grounds and logistical one such occasion proved his bona the Sudan many things are odd." bitter taste among some of those he support. He said Sudan is not the pa- fides. One day after drinking he "At the end I'm convinced he was befriended here. riah regime the United States and pulled a gun and threatened the son glad it was over," a friend mused. "He did a lot for the Arab cause and Western Europe describe, but a re- of a female Sudanese friend who "For me he wanted to be done with we used him and sold him cheap. That sponsible and unfairly quarantined screamed until police from the near- it. He knew he couldn't flee." "state of law." is not good for the Arabs," one man by Yemeni Embassy arrived and ar- "The Cold War was over. The East "The Americans wanted to use said. "When it was all over I realized rested Carlos. Within an hour, re- German and Hungarian secret police Carlos as the final, conclusive proof he wanted to shout, 'I'm Carlos!' " that the Sudan was the home for all terrorists," Turabi said. "Unfortu- nately for the Americans, the mine exploded in favor of the Sudan" by il- lustrating Khartoum's willingness to cooperate. "That's why the State De- partment never mentioned the Su- dan's role when Carlos was arrested." In retrospect, what struck those who saw a great deal socially of self- described businessman Abdullah Barakat—as Carlos called himself during his year in Sudan—was that no one he met socially guessed his true identity. Khartoum's isolation helped. Yet clues abounded. in a city where civil- ians traditionally do not carry fire- arms, Carlos always had a gun in his belt. He was never without his Leb- anese bodyguards and wore a bullet- proof vest in public despite the often more than 100-degree heat. He passed himself off as a Latin American of Lebanese extraction, ac- quaintances recalled, despite a Pales- tinian accent in Arabic. A regular at .