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    November 11, 2011

Terrorism Trial Offers Diversion from European Debt Crisis

   Lisa Bryant | Paris
   Convicted Venezuelan terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, aka "Carlos"
   waits at Paris Court House prior his questioning by German prosecutors
   about the involvement of a former comrade-in-arms in the bloody attack
   on an OPEC conference in Vienna in 1975, (Fil
   Photo: AFP
   Convicted Venezuelan terrorist Illich Ramirez Sanchez, aka "Carlos"
   waits at Paris Court House prior his questioning by German prosecutors
   about the involvement of a former comrade-in-arms in the bloody attack
   on an OPEC conference in Vienna in 1975, (File).

   Besides Europe's financial crisis, France has been riveted this week by
   the trial of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, known to many as Carlos the Jackal.
   The trial has sparked debate about old-style terrorism - and what has,
   and hasn't, changed.
   Sanchez high-profile trial begins
   This is not the first time Ilich Ramirez Sanchez has gone on trial. The
   man better known as "Carlos the Jackal" is already serving a life
   sentence killing two French police and a Lebanese informer in Paris in
   1975.
   The media has been captivated by 62-year-old Ramirez, who has filled
   the courtroom with rambling but colorful speeches.
   This time, he is being tried in connection to four bombings in France
   between 1982 and 1983, that killed 11 people and wounded at least 150
   more. His lawyer and wife, Isabelle Courtant-Peyre, claims he is
   innocent.
   In an interview on French radio, Courtant-Peyre says Ramirez has been
   condemned without proof.
   Ramirez has a colorful past. Born in Venezuela, he was expelled as a
   student from the former Soviet Union. He spent a decade on the run in
   the Middle East, Europe and parts of Africa. He mixed with Palestinian
   radicals and worked for several Eastern European intelligence services.
   "He was a really iconic terrorist at the time. He was the specter of
   the bogey man [monster] that had all the counter-terrorist
   organizations and all the governments running around trying to catch
   him," stated London-based terrorism expert Bob Ayers.
   The French finally did -- in Sudan -- acting on a tip from the CIA,
   according to former French terrorism prosecutor Alain Marsaud.

   Change in terrorism

   Speaking to French radio, Marsaud says Ramirez defines a bygone era of
   so-called state-sponsored terrorism, used by countries like Libya, Iraq
   and Syria. Today, he says, terrorism is carried out by groups -- many
   of them, like Al Qaida, embracing radical Islam.
   But Ayers disagrees. He believes the real change in terrorism is that
   countries are much better at fighting it. "Terrorist groups -- their
   purpose is to go off and get a lot of attention to do some very heinous
   activities to, at least ostensibly, promote their cause. So there's
   really no difference between people like Ramirez, or Carlos the Jackal,
   and people like [Osama] Bin Laden," he said.
   Despite Ramirez' notorious reputation, Ayers says he was a chameleon
   figure, more focused on himself than any cause.
   "He claimed responsibility for a lot of things that he didn't do, and
   he didn't do many things very well," said Ayers. "As a matter of fact,
   as he went through his career, he got bumped around from intelligence
   service to intelligence service - from the East German intelligence to
   the KGB -- and everyone was trying to find a place to put this man so
   he wouldn't embarrass them."
   Many Europeans today were not even born when Ramirez was in his prime.
   But his high-profile trial does offer a diversion from Europe's bleak
   and very current financial crisis.

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