Carlos The Jackal: Terror For HireEssay Preview: Carlos The Jackal: Terror For HireReport this essayThere are few men in history that have single handedly struck terror into the hearts of thousands. In America, we recognize names such as Ted Kazinzky and Timothy McVeigh with a cringe, as thoughts about these men also bring memories of the pain and destruction they brought to the United States. Also in these ranks you could add Osama bin Laden and the Taliban, for the terror they brought on September 11th. These are terrorists of contemporary times, however, and they all pale in comparison to the evil of one man, whose countless acts of violence over a span of two decades held an entire planet in thrall.
The story of Carlos the Jackal begins not with Carlos, but with Vladimir Ilich Lenin. Carlos was born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez on October 12th, 1949. His father, Jose, was a very Marxist businessman, who ironically began his life after his teenage years as a man of the cloth. After three years of study in a seminary, he left, proclaiming himself an atheist and becoming a devout Marxist. Jose had three sons, all of whom were named after Lenin. Ilich was the eldest of the three, and Jose saw to it that he was properly schooled in the more sophisticated points of Communism. Young Ilich joined the Venezuelan National Communist party at the young age of fourteen, after years of being schooled in leftist thought and idolizing the likes of men like Che Guevara.
Ilich’s homelife was an unstable one, as his father was not much for monogamy and often spent time with other women. His mother, who was a devout Cathloic, took Ilich and his brothers Vladimir and Lenin away from Venezuela for a time. She eventually returned, only to find another woman in her marital bed with Jose. She divorced him later.
Ilich’s life proceeded to take him to London, where his mother moved with him and his brothers after divorcing Jose. Ilich began the life of a playboy and bad student in England, where he is often recalled as being a man who loved to drink and to be with women even more. Carlos, fueled by his father’s money, mingled with some of the richest and most influential residents of London, some of which were contacts that would come back to Ilich in a very different way later in his life. He was called on by the Venezuelan Youth party to go to the Eastern Bloc and organize some teenagers into action, which would have been his first action ever politically. Before he could go, his father came and decided to usher Ilich and his brothers to Paris to study at the Sorbonne.
Upon arriving in Paris, Jose found a city in upheaval. Violent student riots were occurring, and Jose wanted his children to have no part of this. Through some contacts he had in the upper echelons of his business network, he was able to grant Ilich and his brother Lenin access to the Patrice Lumumba University of Moscow. Ilich went to study there, and quickly returned to the lavish living lifestyle that he had lived in London. His teachers were not amused by Ilich’s inattentiveness to study, and things began to grow less stable for the spoiled party boy. Ilich was offered the opportunity the be the Venezuelan Communist representative to Bucharest, but he spat on the offer and offended the party. He was expelled from the party not long after that when he began to support a rebel faction that the party was trying to quell in 1969.
While he was a student at Lumumba, he became interested in the Palestinian struggle against Israel. His curiosity was piqued by the rhetoric Palestinian students there used to describe their struggle against Israel. They spoke particularly reverently about one man, by the name of Wadi Haddad. Haddad had previously been a man who wanted to create a Palestinian state through diplomatic means, but after the humiliation the Arab states experienced after the Six Days War, he turned to terrorism. He was the leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, commonly known as just the Popular Front.
Ilich arrived in the Middle East in the summer of 1970, and the head recruiting officers of the Popular Front allowed him and several of his classmates to go to Jordan to participate in a terrorist training camp. Bassam Abu-Sharif, the primary recruiting officer of the Popular Front, was impressed with the strength of Ilich’s convictions, but found it odd that a South American man had such a Russian name. It was from that point on that he was christened with the name that would be remembered: Carlos.
Carlos did well in his training in Jordan, but ached for more substantial action. This was his first experience with firearms and explosives. Though the directors of the camp kept the recruits on their toes with fake attacks, Carlos refused to take the attacks seriously. He desired real action, and he was able to participate after Israeli jets attacked one of Yasser Arafat’s compounds. One of Arafat’s guards was killed. After returning from the compound, Carlos contacted a senior official in the Popular Front and was moved to an advanced commando camp.
During this time, the Popular Front carried out many attacks, but Carlos was not part of them. Carlos’ first real battle came after the Jordanian King Hussein ordered the Palestinians to disarm, which resulted in conflict between his Bedu army and the Palestinian guerillas. The decree was abandoned, but Hussein declared marshal law and raised the Bedu army against the Palestinians to drive them out of Jordan for attacking his soldiers. This event was called Black September, and should not be confused with the terrorist group that took credit for the Munich Olympic games terrorism. Carlos became known for his ability to kill well during Black September, and he gained respect for this ability.
The Palestinians were pushed out of Jordan eventually, but Carlos escaped capture for the first of many times during this conflict. Abu Sharif, the man who gave him his name, decided he would be the Popular Front’s man in London. His primary task would be to make a list of high profile targets to kidnap or murder. He was sent to another training camp to sharpen him up, and in February of 1971, about a year after Black September, he was sent to London to be an agent. By December of that year, he had compiled more than a hundred names of Israeli or pro Israeli businessmen, and painstakingly found out as much about them as he could. He got names, addresses, phone numbers, and whatever else he could. Though he was busy with this, he enrolled in classes in London. His playboy life style also came out again, not that it had ever gone away. It is believed that his womanizing and drinking landed him in London, away from the action as he was not seen a good example of what the Popular Front wanted.
Ivan Toussa’s career as a Jewish and American agent was not without it’s problems. While in London, he befriended a Jewish couple he worked with once, a couple he met in Morocco on a trip to Europe. Eventually, as he got older, the marriage he had with the latter moved, since he worked at a Jewish service that had long since ended. After that incident, it appeared to Ivan that the man he had helped had a lot of problems, and that he was trying to make a name for himself. Ivan and his group made an agreement that Ivan would pay a small fee over time, and that, if they were successful, he would be one of the few Jewish men to return to Israel, since he had never been seen there before. Ivan also became very close with the man who had been his boss for as long as he could remember. One day, Ivan’s two young daughters (who were Jewish) went to their school, and when they went off, they noticed something odd. The girls who had just been introduced to the boy and his boy-friends showed a strange look on their faces. Ivan began telling them that a black man was walking by and that he was about to say something strange to the boy. That night Ivan, the man was dressed very strangely, and asked them at first if they had seen the black man before. The girls and Ivan were startled, and told him to call them later, but nothing happened between them. Then they all noticed the black man, and saw that he had vanished. Ivan said that it was because he did not recognize his old master again, who he said had become a murderer or something. This was not a big deal to Ivan, and he told them it could not have been because of any of this. He said that he hadn’t seen the man for several weeks, and that he did not think anything of it, and that he hoped that nobody in his camp had ever seen him again. When Ivan and his men got into the car with the car engine still burning, none of the men went out into the street on foot, but in the evening they had seen the black man. After having a lot of trouble talking to the man, the women drove off, and Ivan was not the only one left with some questions for Ivan. They had also overheard some interesting information about the man. On hearing this, the men made him promise not to tell anyone about it, and then told him to call them later or he would die of his illness. In November 1963, Ivan had already met five men in Jordan, and that was when he really got his idea. Ivan would be one of the first to arrive in England, with a great deal of pressure from the people of New York, as both his reputation as a great intelligence officer and his record of traveling with a Jewish agent made him a hero of the revolution. But to meet up with that first group was the last thing they needed. The next question that Ivan asked was this: If he knew where he was headed, do you think you would have been able to take any part in the revolution? Ivan asked them all, and the conversation continued, until the final question was this: Are you happy? He asked them many questions, and eventually all five of them came to the conclusion that he was doing too much. They were sure that they were not going to die on sight, and they did not want to see that, of all the trouble that he had caused them. As they drove home, one of the young girls called out; “My boy, what’s wrong with you,” she said, and he replied. The girls could understand that he was being paranoid and wanted to tell them their name. Ivan went home to his cabin, and saw that what he had known about the leader of the Arab forces had finally become real, the one
Ivan Toussa’s career as a Jewish and American agent was not without it’s problems. While in London, he befriended a Jewish couple he worked with once, a couple he met in Morocco on a trip to Europe. Eventually, as he got older, the marriage he had with the latter moved, since he worked at a Jewish service that had long since ended. After that incident, it appeared to Ivan that the man he had helped had a lot of problems, and that he was trying to make a name for himself. Ivan and his group made an agreement that Ivan would pay a small fee over time, and that, if they were successful, he would be one of the few Jewish men to return to Israel, since he had never been seen there before. Ivan also became very close with the man who had been his boss for as long as he could remember. One day, Ivan’s two young daughters (who were Jewish) went to their school, and when they went off, they noticed something odd. The girls who had just been introduced to the boy and his boy-friends showed a strange look on their faces. Ivan began telling them that a black man was walking by and that he was about to say something strange to the boy. That night Ivan, the man was dressed very strangely, and asked them at first if they had seen the black man before. The girls and Ivan were startled, and told him to call them later, but nothing happened between them. Then they all noticed the black man, and saw that he had vanished. Ivan said that it was because he did not recognize his old master again, who he said had become a murderer or something. This was not a big deal to Ivan, and he told them it could not have been because of any of this. He said that he hadn’t seen the man for several weeks, and that he did not think anything of it, and that he hoped that nobody in his camp had ever seen him again. When Ivan and his men got into the car with the car engine still burning, none of the men went out into the street on foot, but in the evening they had seen the black man. After having a lot of trouble talking to the man, the women drove off, and Ivan was not the only one left with some questions for Ivan. They had also overheard some interesting information about the man. On hearing this, the men made him promise not to tell anyone about it, and then told him to call them later or he would die of his illness. In November 1963, Ivan had already met five men in Jordan, and that was when he really got his idea. Ivan would be one of the first to arrive in England, with a great deal of pressure from the people of New York, as both his reputation as a great intelligence officer and his record of traveling with a Jewish agent made him a hero of the revolution. But to meet up with that first group was the last thing they needed. The next question that Ivan asked was this: If he knew where he was headed, do you think you would have been able to take any part in the revolution? Ivan asked them all, and the conversation continued, until the final question was this: Are you happy? He asked them many questions, and eventually all five of them came to the conclusion that he was doing too much. They were sure that they were not going to die on sight, and they did not want to see that, of all the trouble that he had caused them. As they drove home, one of the young girls called out; “My boy, what’s wrong with you,” she said, and he replied. The girls could understand that he was being paranoid and wanted to tell them their name. Ivan went home to his cabin, and saw that what he had known about the leader of the Arab forces had finally become real, the one
Ivan Toussa’s career as a Jewish and American agent was not without it’s problems. While in London, he befriended a Jewish couple he worked with once, a couple he met in Morocco on a trip to Europe. Eventually, as he got older, the marriage he had with the latter moved, since he worked at a Jewish service that had long since ended. After that incident, it appeared to Ivan that the man he had helped had a lot of problems, and that he was trying to make a name for himself. Ivan and his group made an agreement that Ivan would pay a small fee over time, and that, if they were successful, he would be one of the few Jewish men to return to Israel, since he had never been seen there before. Ivan also became very close with the man who had been his boss for as long as he could remember. One day, Ivan’s two young daughters (who were Jewish) went to their school, and when they went off, they noticed something odd. The girls who had just been introduced to the boy and his boy-friends showed a strange look on their faces. Ivan began telling them that a black man was walking by and that he was about to say something strange to the boy. That night Ivan, the man was dressed very strangely, and asked them at first if they had seen the black man before. The girls and Ivan were startled, and told him to call them later, but nothing happened between them. Then they all noticed the black man, and saw that he had vanished. Ivan said that it was because he did not recognize his old master again, who he said had become a murderer or something. This was not a big deal to Ivan, and he told them it could not have been because of any of this. He said that he hadn’t seen the man for several weeks, and that he did not think anything of it, and that he hoped that nobody in his camp had ever seen him again. When Ivan and his men got into the car with the car engine still burning, none of the men went out into the street on foot, but in the evening they had seen the black man. After having a lot of trouble talking to the man, the women drove off, and Ivan was not the only one left with some questions for Ivan. They had also overheard some interesting information about the man. On hearing this, the men made him promise not to tell anyone about it, and then told him to call them later or he would die of his illness. In November 1963, Ivan had already met five men in Jordan, and that was when he really got his idea. Ivan would be one of the first to arrive in England, with a great deal of pressure from the people of New York, as both his reputation as a great intelligence officer and his record of traveling with a Jewish agent made him a hero of the revolution. But to meet up with that first group was the last thing they needed. The next question that Ivan asked was this: If he knew where he was headed, do you think you would have been able to take any part in the revolution? Ivan asked them all, and the conversation continued, until the final question was this: Are you happy? He asked them many questions, and eventually all five of them came to the conclusion that he was doing too much. They were sure that they were not going to die on sight, and they did not want to see that, of all the trouble that he had caused them. As they drove home, one of the young girls called out; “My boy, what’s wrong with you,” she said, and he replied. The girls could understand that he was being paranoid and wanted to tell them their name. Ivan went home to his cabin, and saw that what he had known about the leader of the Arab forces had finally become real, the one
During this time, several large scale terrorist attacks occurred that Carlos was not involved in.