Carlos: the jackal

New TV has a daily feature called "Person of the Day." It has been silly thus far. Yesterday, they had one on Carlos, the Jackal. The information in it were most likely derived from various websites and had no connection to reality. They made him a leader of a revolutionary movement when in reality he was a braggart, a show-off and a gun for hire. Carlos was merely a lieutenant among many in the movement of Wadi` Haddad. To be sure, Haddad was impressed with his skills in guns and with his speed and with his language skills. But Haddad kept him on a short leach because he knew of his weaknesses. And after the Vienna operation, Haddad summoned Carlos and slapped him on the face because he improvised and because Haddad began to distrust him on financial matters. Carlos is a small footnote in the history of Palestinian struggle, or even in the history of world revolutionary struggle. The world needs a poster person, and braggarts always fill that role. The report yesterday mentioned that Carlos was linked to Black September attack in Munich when he had no role whatsoever. Abu Hasan Salamah was another case in point: he had a big mouth and he bragged about things that he had nothing to do with (like Munich), which led the Israeli Orientalists to believe that he was linked to Black September organization. The story will be told one day.