AFIO Now Interviews & Podcasts

Interview conducted 27 August 2026 with Joby Warrick, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, National Security Correspondent/Report for The Washington Post, and author of just released "The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, the World's First Super-Terrorist."

The Jackal traces the rise and fall of the notorious 1970s terrorist Ilich Ramírez Sánchez ("Carlos the Jackal"). Warrick drew from years of research, newly declassified Eastern Bloc archival material, and interviews with Middle Eastern witnesses and Western intelligence officers.  He joined the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) in the early 1970s and was cultivated as a European sleeper agent. Carlos gained his moniker and international notoriety in 1975 after his PFLP handler betrayed his location. Carlos killed the handler and two French intelligence (DST) officers in Paris before escaping. Months later, he masterminded the high-profile kidnapping of over 60 oil ministers at the OPEC headquarters in Vienna. Sidelined by the PFLP for disobeying orders during the OPEC raid, Carlos formed his own mercenary group, executing operations for state sponsors like Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu (bombing Radio Free Europe) and Syrian leader Hafiz al-Assad. When French authorities arrested his girlfriend, Carlos launched a deadly bombing campaign against French targets. By the 1990s, Carlos had relocated to Khartoum, Sudan. The CIA located him by tracking his bodyguard, establishing surveillance, and facilitating his eventual capture.