On December 21, 1975, one of the greatest terrorist attacks of the time took place. The Carlos group, which has gone down in history as the Jackal, kidnapped ministers attending the OPEC conference. Interestingly, the attackers reached the crime scene ... by tram.
The tram stopped in the Dr Karl Lueger Ring area near Christkindlmarkt, the Christmas market. Perhaps the smell of the sausages and mulled wine that had been served the night before was still in the air. But now it was cool and slippery as some snow had fallen during the night.
Ilicz Ramírez Sánchez (still from the mini-series "Carlos")
Six people with sports bags on their shoulders were walking towards the headquarters of OPEC - an organization associating oil-producing countries. The meeting was just underway - gas prices were being debated. There was no consent among the delegates. Countries that needed money - like Iraq - were in favor of the raise, others - like Saudi Arabia and Iran, which had good relations with the West, were against raising prices . Everyone remembered the recent oil crisis caused by the embargo on oil sales after the war with Israel.
OPEC headquarters in Vienna
When the group entered the building around 11.30, the policeman greeted the newcomers, probably thinking they were latecomers. The assassins soon set to work. On the first floor, they took out their weapons. The shooting began. One of the Austrian officers trying to stop the terrorists was shot. A security guard for Iranian envoys and a member of the Libyan delegation were also killed.
The roar of shots reached 11 ministers meeting in the conference room. Soon the situation was "under control". The terrorists took the building, they had about 60 hostages with them (apart from the ministers, there were advisers, secretaries, interpreters, etc.). Now is the time to negotiate.
The world's most wanted man
The leader of the bombers was the Venezuelan Ilyich Ramírez Sánchez, at that time the most wanted man in the world, known from the early 1970s as Carlos, and later also as Jackal - the pseudonym was borrowed from the famous novel by Frederick Forsyth.
He was the son of a communist lawyer who, although gave his sons the names of the leader of the Bolshevik revolution (Ilijcz's brothers were called Włodzimierz and Lenin), nevertheless took care of their education and well-being . So Sanchez had communist tendencies from his youth, but he did not renounce the charms of the capitalist world - good clothes, alcohol, restaurants, women. He was famous for it.
At the end of the 1960s, Ilyich went to Moscow to study, but his decadent lifestyle did not quite match the rigors of the Soviet Union - he was expelled from university. Earlier, however, he had managed to tie up with Arabs, who then studied a lot in Moscow. Through them he reached the People's Front for the Liberation of Palestine and found himself in the Middle East.
He became a terrorist. Its boss was Wadi Haddad himself. He had just sent Carlos to Europe - where the 20-year-old would carry out the bombings and eliminate the enemies of the Palestinian cause. One of his targets was Joseph Sieff, owner of the famous retail chain Marks &Spencer. A Jewish businessman, who was hit in the face, survived, but the others were not so lucky.
So Sanchez had communist tendencies from his youth, but he did not renounce the charms of the capitalist world - good clothes, alcohol, restaurants, women.
The 1970s was the time of the terrorist international often sponsored by the Soviet Union. The Irish, the Arabs, the communising Germans, led by Urlika Meinhof, and even the Japanese from the rather exotic Japanese Red Army, cooperated. They all wanted to overthrow the existing order - practiced in training camps located in the Middle East - where local dictators, assisted by Moscow, took power . They also visited Eastern European countries - they were trained in the GDR, they were supposed to come to Poland for rest and convalescence.
Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez was just such a "golden child" of the era - the son of a wealthy daddy, possessed by ideology, but also a narcissist who wanted to show the world what he meant. The not very successful stay in Moscow, as well as the earlier innocent visit to Cuba, contributed to building his legend as a dangerous KGB agent.
Oil, Jews and Kurds
The Middle East was then divided over the Palestinian question. Some countries openly supported the militants and wanted a confrontation with Israel and the United States, others preferred a less aggressive policy focused on doing business with the West.
There were also religious issues - Shi'ites fighting the Sunnis; territorial and national disputes - Persians versus Arabs, Arabs versus Jews or Kurds ... Let's add Marxism and East-West rivalry and we get an explosive mixture.
One of the adventurers of that era was the vice president, but de facto already leader, Iraqi Saddam Hussein. Although himself sponsored separatism in Pakistani Balochistan, he was exterminating the Kurds in his own country. The latter, in turn, were supported by Iran, with which Baghdad also had other conflicts . And although in the spring of 1975 it calmed down for a while on the Baghdad-Tehran line, Hussein was already thinking about a war with Iran. All he needed was one thing - money. And it was the crude oil that could have given him.
The operation was paid for by the then Vice President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein
In spite of anger, its prices were not so high anymore after Saudi Arabia decided in 1974 to lift the gas embargo. Hussein came up with the idea of kidnapping OPEC ministers, forcing them to set different prices and, at the same time, to condemn Israel - which would give the coup ideological credibility. He contacted Vadim Haddad, who commissioned his man in Europe - Carlos.
The ministers who met in Vienna were an excellent target. After all, they represented the most important branch of the world economy at that time. It was all about oil back then.
Ham sandwiches
Preparations for the action took several weeks. In addition to Sanchez, three Arabs and two Germans were also to participate directly in it - including the bland Gabriele Kröcher-Tiedemann, 23, until recently a sociology student and evident psychopath.
At the beginning of December, everyone was already in the capital of peaceful and wealthy Austria. There were also weapons:Italian Beretta submachine guns, M-16 rifles, Scorpion pistols, P38 revolvers and several kilograms of explosives. Carlos moved into, of course, at the modern Hilton Hotel. He then wore a mustache and sideburns. He also bought a beret. He resembled his idol Che Guevara.
For neutral Austria, the terrorist attack came as a shock. Chancellor Bruno Kreisky was on skis. Initially, the special forces tried to recapture the building, but after a short shoot in which one of Carlos's companions - German Hans Joachim Klein - was injured - the police withdrew . Negotiations finally started.
Carlos was acting weird. Once he threatened everyone with death, other times he was kind and polite. He showed great respect to the ministers of some countries. Two others - from Saudi Arabia and Iran - have announced that he has orders to kill them. When the hostages got hungry, he ordered food to be delivered to them. Austrians, unaware of the religious precepts of Muslims, delivered pork sandwiches ... Then the food arrived for them to eat.
The next day, Carlos asked for a bus with curtained windows to take them all to the airport, where the DC9 was to be waiting with full fuel tanks. To this was added an appeal that the Arabs must stand against Israel and fight the conspiracy of the Zionists and the American imperialists.
Fuck you!
The next day, at 6.40 am, the Austrian government actually delivered a vehicle with curtained windows to the OPEC headquarters. It was the yellow Österreichische Post bus, because only one could be found. The hostages were transported to the airport.
Soon the plane was ready for departure. Carlos laid off some people - conference attendants. The machine took off a little after 9.00. The leader of the kidnappers was in a good mood - he even started signing autographs to his victims. The pilot has set course for Algiers.
Arab leaders certainly did not wish Israel well, but the terrorist attack did not go their way - primarily because their ministers had been kidnapped. The sponsor of the action, Saddam Hussein, did not want to be associated with the case. Also Mu'ammar Gaddafi in Libya did not take the plane, Tunisia did not. Saudi Arabia was furious. Meanwhile, the DC9 was not suitable for long flights and had to be refueled.
The authorities in Algiers had traditional ties with France, where Carlos was the enemy number one for his terrorist antics and the shooting of French officials. In the end, Carlos was allowed to land, but also wanted to get rid of the problem quickly. And although the head of Algerian diplomacy, Abdel Aziz Bouteflik, embraced Carlos to greet him, he conducted the talks tough.
Wadie Haddad in Syria around 1970
As a result, the kidnappers freed the hostages. In the end, Carlos did not kill the representatives of Iran and Saudi Arabia - he was to receive $ 20 million for sparing their lives. The Venezuelan, as his companions recalled, wanted fame, money and adventure above all. The action in Vienna gave him that.
Kröcher-Tiedemann, when she found out about the findings, was to shout:"Fuck you!" (according to another version, she called Carlos sk **** son). The Arab members of the group were also furious. Years later, one of them, a Palestinian, said:"My nation was deprived of a homeland, and he only thought of money!
Wadi Haddad was even supposed to contemplate Carlos's trial, but was eventually pacified by the money. And Carlos? He has established himself as the No. 1 terrorist.