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Terror Through Time

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Factual: History

Fergal Keane uncovers the roots of modern terrorism

Terror Through Time: Carlos: International Terrorist

Carlos: International Terrorist

22/10/2013

BBC Radio 4 - Terror Through Time, Carlos: International Terrorist

Fergal Keane considers the career of Carlos the Jackal.

Carlos the Jackal was the anti-James Bond, a legend amongst international terrorists. Fergal Keane considers his murderous career.

To his friends Carlos the Jackal was a charming bon viveur, a lover of fine wine and glamorous women. To western intelligence agencies in the 1970s, he was Public Enemy Number One, an unpredictable assassin, as likely to kill for money as for the Palestinian cause he claimed to support.

Fergal Keane follows the trail of Carlos from his Marxist up-bringing in Venezuela to university in Moscow and guerrilla training camps before his entry onto the international scene with a series of spectacular attacks against perceived enemies of the Palestinians.

Fergal talks to the French judge who eventually tracked him down and convicted him and to Bassam Abu Sharif, the Palestinian spokesman who first spotted his capacity to grab the imagination of the media.

Producer: Alasdair Cross.

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