A DEAL BETWEEN FRANCE AND IRAN < Commentary by Ron
Ben-Yishai - "Yediot Ahronot", August 16, 1994, p. 4.
There is a bad smell surrounding the extradition of Carlos.
This is the smell of a deal between the French government, which must now
prove to its electorate that it is fighting terror, and Sudan which is
one of the Middle Eastern states that wants to clear its name in the
international arena.
The radical Islamic regime of Sudan which agreed to extradite Carlos to
France hosts the largest training camps for Iranian terrorists on its
soil. Under the instruction of Iranian Revolutionary Guards, members of
Islamic Jihad and Hamas as well as Egyptian and other fundamentalists
are trained there. How is it that Sudan suddenly consented to extradite
a wanted terrorist, who apparently arrived there with the encouragement
and assistance of Iran or Syria?
The explanation might be found in one of two possibilities:
* The first possibility is that the Iranians may have encouraged Sudan,
which is sustained by the Iranian regime, to sacrifice Carlos. The
Iranians know that the French government is now pressured to demonstrate
that, after the murder of its diplomats in Algiers, it is effectively
fighting terrorism. Tehran owes the French. About one year ago, the French
released a number of Iranian murderers who were apprehended in France. Two
of the Iranians had murdered Shahpur Bakhtiar, the former Prime Minister
of Iran, who was exiled and had received asylum in France. The other two
murdered another opponent of the Iranian regime in Geneva. Mitterrand
explained the release of the murderers as a 'supreme national interest.'
He did not give details. The truth may now come to light.
* The second possibility is that Syria may have encouraged Sudan to get
rid of the Marxist terrorist, who is of no value to the Islamic revolution
anyway. In any event, Western intelligence sources believe that the
extradition was not effected because Sudan has suddenly become an advocate
of international law.
As to Israel, we have had no special interest in Carlos for some time. His
name never appeared high on Israel's list of wanted terrorists. He was not
party to the murder of the Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics. Nor
did he have a hand in the Air France hi-jacking to to Entebbe. Despite the
fact that he has maintained close links to the PFLP, he has carried out
very few attacks against Israel, Israeli citizens or Jews.
Very reliable Western sources have attributed an attempted 1975 attack
against an El-Al airliner at Orly airport in France to Carlos, and maybe
one or two other attempted attacks in Europe. That's all.
Israel and the Jews did not particularly interest Carlos. He provided
logistical and consulting services to Palestinian terrorists and
received services from them but it was the 'capitalist regimes' of
Western Europe and the Middle East which interested him most. These, he
sought to eradicate, in order to advance the international Socialist
revolution.
Apparently, the myth that was constructed around Carlos bore no proportion
to his actions. Still, he is worthy of the 'master terrorist' title.
During his career, which continued for about 20 years, he has had scores
of casualties to his 'credit.' He cooperated with the underground Baader
Meinhof gang, which operated against the democratic-capitalist regime in
West Germany. For the same reasons, he operated in France. He killed two
French secret service agents who tries to arrest him. Afterward, the
French angered him when they arrested his wife a terrorist in her own
right in the early 1980s. He demanded her release and, when this was
not fulfilled, he carried out a series of fatal terrorist attacks in
France; 15 people were killed.
Then, he leased his services to the East German 'Stasi', to Romania's
Ceaucescu and to Czechoslovakian intelligence. All of these rewarded him
handsomely, and provided with him the diplomatic documents necessary to
move around the world freely under a false identity.
When the Communist regimes in Europe collapsed, Carlos lost his source of
income and was forced to wander. He sought new masters and asylum for
himself, his family and some of his personnel. With the warm
recommendation of Stasi personnel, the Syrians received Carlos with open
arms toward the end of the 1980s. But the Americans, who did not take a
kind view of this, pressured the Syrians who politely asked him to
leave. He drifted with his family to Libya, later found asylum in Yemen,
and there have been rumors of late that he had arrived in Iran.
In recent years, he has been hunted. The wealth he has amassed has allowed
him to live comfortably, but the Arabs gave him the cold shoulder and
the fundamentalist Moslem terrorist masters did not desire the services of
an heretical Marxist-Leninist. Accordingly, the Iranians and Sudanese
apparently did not find it difficult to sacrifice him for the sake of
somewhat improving their international image.