Signature Campaign: Protest the Attack against Carlos the Jackal

Today is August 15, 2009. August 15 is also the date of a religious fest which is dedicated to the Virgin Mary in the half of the world. And for me, today is the fifteenth anniversary of my kidnapping from Sudan by illegal ways and bringing to an air base in Paris by a private plane and putting into a special custody center in a lawless way. This illegal operation and kidnapping was performed not only by French but also by American and Israeli secret service agents.

There was a completely illegal act not only according to the judicial systems of the countries involved in the operation but also according to the formal regulations and laws of European Union and United Nations, and many discussions have been made about this illegal aspect of this operation. The problem is the fact that citizens from different countries are treated in different ways and all these are explained in the framework of “international law” although those explanations are completely different from one another.

I will give you an example about intervening in the other countries’ domestic law: After the opposing party leader Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma was visited by some American authorities, things changed and the process ended up this way: That woman leader would be sentenced to home confinement although she was demanded to be released. I want this political leader to be set free but if you imagine that the same kind of visit from abroad and intervention was realized by an Islamic country authority for an opposing party leader or a politician of a Western country, you could see what kind of reaction you would take.

Another example for this double standard is what happened to my prison neighbour. He is an Iranian. My friend Ali who performed active struggle for the Iranian revolution at that time has been in prison for 18 years lawlessly due to many groundless and distorted accusations, and nobody says anything. He is a political person, but he is not among the ones gaining million dollars from revolution unlike the others, he is a real hero. Of course, there is no Western country or "international law" to defend his rights. Since those kinds of heroes, militants or warriors who devoted their lives and everything to the liberation of their countries are seen not as "heroes" but as "threats" by the great political powers of the world and secret services, all the security forces and diplomats of these countries are against them. Therefore, they undergo a period of suffering in prisons all around the world. For example, in French prisones, there are still Muslim or Christian Lebanese warriors. Their captivity has lasted 20 years. Furthermore, they cannot get their rights because of the constraints of the United States of America.

And I have been here for 15 years. What happened 15 years ago?

I was living under the supervision and guard of some 60 Sudanese secret service officers, commuting from hospital to the villa I stayed in. Our movements were restricted. And we were using this opportunity and we could go around in this limited place. They were protecting us from foreign secret services working in Khartoum. I noticed them, too. And we were living under a protection shield together with Osama bin Laden, Abu Nidal and Imad Mugniye. And, one day, when I opened my eyes, I found myself before CIA and French secret service authorities in France. They had sold me. Who were responsible?

It happened in the period of Dr. Hassan al-Turabi, the political leader of Sudan. Turabi spent a big part of his life in prison or home confinement after I had been betrayed. The other responsible one was Omar al-Bashir, the leader of Sudan’s regime, the “wanted” man of today. I expressed previously that I don’t believe in “international law”, “international justice”, “international courts”. For this reason, I support Sudanese people’s and government’s not accepting the decision taken against al-Bashir by “International Criminal Court” and Sudan’s struggle for their judicial independence, and I send my good wishes to all Sudanese people. I support here not the president personally but the institution of presidency and judicial independence of a country. At this point, no foreign intervention is accepted. The terminology of “massacre” they use is totally Jewish based and trying to cover the plans of imperialism for Sudan.

I went to Sudan in August 1993 by a Sudan Airways plane that took off from Amman. Some international revolutionists and my Palestinian ex-wife Lana Jarrar were with me. She was studying at university in Damascus to be a dentist the following year. She descends from a family of Ottoman aristocracy. She is the granddaughter of Ethem Bey. She came to France without feeling any fear after I had been brought here, and searched for my situation asking the judicial authorities. She struggled for organizing my defense team, visited me in prison and provided all my needs like clothes and so forth, which was a tragic story.

Anyway, while coming to Sudan from Jordan, Sudan's minister of foreign affairs of that time was in that plane, too. My friends from Jordanian secret service accompanied me with their cars. These friends of mine were the people who supported all our struggle within PFLP in the past, agreed with our ideas and tolerated our living in Jordan, under the permisson and support of King Hussein. They were even supporting Abu Davoud who had organized Munih Olympics Operation in 1972. Leila Khaled had the same kind of support. We were invited to Jordan from Damascus. Because, it was the period when father George Bush was about to start the operation towards Kuwaiti territory which had been occupied by Iraq. It was the end of 1990 and just after Bush’s meeting with Hafez al-Assad. Bush wanted him to throw us away from Syria. In the list, the first name was Ahmed Jibril, the second was Abu Nidal and the third one was me. And, it was actually me who was living in Damascus. Abu Nidal and Jibril were the people who had some places to go and had permanent resident status in Syria. In fact, the first name in the list was me, so I had to leave Syria.

It is a fact that the situation not for me but for all the Muslims is that: If you’re a real Muslim, there isn’t any “international” law in favor of you. Also, you’re a revolutionist, you’re against the imperialist oppression and its foundations and you’re ready to die for your cause, which is you’re a person having principles. When this is the case, you are never respected by states, laws or press; you are not valuable in the “international” arena. If you don’t have such kind of principles, or if they are corrupted, if you say “okay” for the price determined for you, it is obvious that all the doors will be opened to you. From this point of view, I’m a person who was wanted to be bought by even the United States of America through being offered great amounts of money. I rejected all of them whatever would be the cost for me. In short, a Muslim does not have any equality before the law.

I’m not seen as an ordinary prisoner and I know that I will be killed one day. Many people want me to be destroyed and are looking forward to that day (Carlos is laughing while saying these words), but I still survive as a “living martyr”, I continue my struggle which I’m proud of and I will go on being an example, encouraging the others for resistance. However, the more clever and efficient way for me is to spread and organize the experiences. “Freedom" means returning back to the struggle for the people like us. Of course, struggles have different means, that is, weapons are not everything. A person who has been in prison for years do not need to take up arms again as soon as he becomes free. He has other jobs to do where he can be more efficient like providing the other fronts of the struggle with his experiences, or organizing new revolutions. This is Venezuela for me: supporting the revolution of Venezuela which is the “engine" of the liberation of Latin America and Carrebeans like the role Cuba played in the past.