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

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 . (Nov.)