11/04/2026 Forum Plus - Carlos the Jackal: A Conversation with Joby Warrick

Published November 4, 2026 at 4:05 PM MST

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For more than two decades, Carlos the Jackal was among the world's most wanted terrorists, crossing international borders with multiple passports, evading intelligence agencies, and enjoying the protection of authoritarian governments. But was he driven by revolutionary ideology, money, or simply a desire for notoriety?

In his latest book, The Jackal, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and Washington Post national security correspondent Joby Warrick draws on recently declassified CIA records, newly available intelligence archives from Romania and Hungary, and interviews with individuals involved in Carlos's eventual capture. These sources shed new light on his relationships with authoritarian regimes and how he managed to elude capture for so long.

Warrick also recounts his remarkable March 2025 interview with Carlos in a French prison, potentially one of the last interviews with the notorious terrorist, now 77 and reportedly experiencing early-stage dementia.

Joby and Jim explore the rise and fall of the world's first celebrity terrorist and how advances in biometric technology and international intelligence cooperation have changed the world in which Carlos once operated.

Host: Jim Falk

Guest: Joby Warrick, author, The Jackal: The Rise and Fall of Carlos, The World’s First Super-Terrorist