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| Europe | ||
| Carlos the Jackal back in court over 1980s bombs | ||
| 2011-11-05 | ||
| PARIS: Gray hair and a paunch have replaced the beret, leather jacket and dark glasses but Carlos the Jackal's defiance remains intact before he stands trial in France for a series of bombings in the 1980s. The international revolutionary from Venezuela, born Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, built a career as one of the world's best known guerrillas after a hostage-taking of OPEC oil ministers in the name of the Palestinian struggle in 1975. Since his capture and sentencing nearly two decades ago, the Jackal has been resident of a French prison. On Monday, Ramirez, already condemned to life in jail, will face a three-judge terrorism panel to answer charges he was behind four urban bombings in France that killed 11 people and wounded nearly 200 in the early 1980s. "I am really in a combative mood," Ramirez, 62, told Europe 1 radio last month. "I'm not fearful by nature...My character is suited to this kind of combat." The Marxist with a Che Guevara beret became the face of 1970s and 80s anti-imperialism, his taste for women and alcohol adding to his revolutionary mystique. "He was the symbol of international leftist terrorism," said Francois-Bernard Huyghe, a terrorism expert at the Institute of International and Strategic Relations, IRIS, in Paris. "One day it could be in the service of the Palestinian cause, the next day he could put bombs in French trains. He was a kind of star."
But he and his modus operandi are anachronisms, experts say. "Carlos the Jackal was the Osama Bin Laden of his day," his biographer, John Follain, told Reuters TV. "Terrorism has evolved so much that today he represents a solitary voice in the desert, a pretty old-fashioned voice." Huyghe was more blunt: "A man like Carlos is really a dinosaur today. I think of him as 'historical remains.'"
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| Posted by:Steve White |
| #2 The Israelis have long admitted that Carlos was one of their worst unintentional mistakes. Carlos' boss in South America was also a murderous thug, but he was nowhere on the scale of Carlos in his aptitude to make trouble. But after an attack, Israel sent some assassins to take him out, which resulted in Carlos taking his place. This has led to a change in the assassination decision making process, that it is a very good idea to assess the lieutenants of a target, as well as the target himself. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-11-05 10:04 |
| #1 "Nearly two decades ago ..." > **** cough *** cough *** ........ D *** NGED BRACHS. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2011-11-05 00:28 |