Tracking the Jackal: The Search for Carlos, the World's Most Wanted Man

The author describes his ten-year search for Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as Carlos the Jackal, recounting how he followed Sanchez through the world of spies and intelligence officers and dealt with the likes of Qaddafi, Arafat, and Nidal

In this compelling report from the Middle East, British journalist Yallop ( In God's Name ) chronicles his seven-year search for Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who was born into an upper-middle-class family in Caracas in 1949 and by the age of 26 had become "Carlos the Jackal," the world's most notorious terrorist. Based on extensive research and numerous interviews with such figures as Abu Nidal, Colonel Khadafy and Yasir Arafat, Yallop argues that much of the reason the jackal is so difficult to track is that he is more myth than reality. The author maintains that by attributing an astounding assortment of crimes to him, various governments were acting to make the Cold War colder and a tense Middle East tenser. Yallop has little sympathy for Carlos, whose crimes--such as arranging the 1972 murder of Israeli Olympic athletes at Munich and the 1975 kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers--are certainly those of a dangerous terrorist; yet when the two finally meet, Carlos seems less menacing than expected. Although too drawn out and repetitive at times, the book is nonetheless a dramatic and intriguing international thriller with relevance to recent events: witness an epilogue that takes into account the Israeli-PLO accord. Full of bravado and with surprisingly little strategic sense, Carlos, suggests Yallop, was used as a puppet by those whose bloody missions he carried out. Photos not seen by PW .
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Attention must be paid a journalist who expresses formal gratitude to, among others, Yasser Arafat, Caroline Kennedy, Abu Nidal, Muammar al-Qaddafi, Yitzhak Shamir, and Bruce Springsteen for their help in his ten-year quest to get the lowdown on Carlos- -arguably the world's highest-profile terrorist. Here, Yallop (Deliver Us from Evil, 1982, etc.) offers an absorbing narrative of his inquiry, which sets the record plausibly straight on the outlaw dubbed ``the Jackal.'' The Venezuelan-born Carlos (n‚ Ilich Ramirez Sanchez) is alive and well in Damascus, according to Yallop, who recounts two interviews he was granted with the globe's most wanted man. In Yallop's view, Syria has given Carlos a safe haven for reasons having as much to do with his useful notoriety as with murky Middle Eastern politics and the factionalism of Palestinian liberation movements. By his own account, the terrorist is a bit of a klutz whose deeds seldom match his reputation. Trained by the PLO, he's portrayed as being, at the height of his infamy, little more than a reckless hired gun for Wadi Haddad's Popular Front; had he not gained propaganda value, Carlos's lack of discipline and dedication likely would have landed him in an early grave. Moreover, Yallop reveals that while Carlos led the bloody 1975 assault that held OPEC ministers hostage, he didn't participate in many other violent acts for which he's been blamed. Throughout, the author does a credible job of unraveling the tangled webs that link dissident as well as revolutionary organizations with the governments and police forces charged with bringing them to book, and he offers convincing evidence of the complicity, negligence, and jurisdictional conflicts that repeatedly have allowed Carlos to evade capture. If Yallop crows a bit about uncovering information missed, misunderstood, or distorted by law-enforcement and the fourth estate, that's the price of admission to an engrossing guided tour of a netherworld familiar largely to a troubled time's lost souls. (Photos--not seen) -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

In riveting prose, Yallop asks how a man accused of so much can remain free. A decade-long search leads the author to conclude that Ilich Ramirez Sanchez--the Venezuelan-born Catholic turned Leninist turned bourgeois known as Carlos the Jackal--is in fact an agent who worked for a dozen intelligence services, including the CIA. Yallop refutes allegations that the real Carlos was at the 1972 Lod or Munich Olympic games massacres and shows how the 1975 OPEC Conference hostage-taking episode turned into a major blunder that was nevertheless used to help build a mystique around the "terrorist." Indeed, the book is filled with interesting allegations about Carlos's so-called achievements--acts he may or may not have committed. Yallop concludes that Carlos "was a useful asset" to many folks who used his name to create the perfect terrorist scapegoat. Recommended for its inquisitiveness.
- Joseph A. Kechichian, Rand Corp., Santa Monica, Cal.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

It must have been frustrating for David Yallop to write this book, judging by his interviews with such Arab world luminaries as Yasir Arafat and Muammar Quadaffi and such terrorist leaders such as Wadi Haddad and Abu Nidal. All of them had something to hide when Yallop asked them about Venezuelan Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, alias Carlos the Jackal, who, it is claimed, participated in numerous terrorist acts, including the 1972 Black September raid on the Munich Olympics and, later, the kidnapping of OPEC oil ministers. Yallop asked good questions. He asked a man claiming to be Carlos what lesson his terrorists were teaching when they bombed El Al Airlines; the answer was, "That they shouldn't fly El Al Airlines!" As the book wears on, however, just as in real life, things get muddled: It becomes clear, for instance, that the Arab world is anything but united in its support of terrorist activities, especially when many of those acts are carried out against other Arabs. Yallop also addresses Israeli abuses of the Palestinians and is unconvinced that the recent Israel-PLO accord will stem the tide of violence. Ultimately, the reader's curiosity is not satisfied: Why was there a Carlos, and for what purpose? Tracking the Jackal answers some questions but, as usual in books on the Middle East, leaves many more unanswered. Joe Collins