On December 19, 1980 in Budapest, Hungary, the infamous terrorist “Carlos the Jackal” (Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez from Venezuela) and his right-hand man, German terrorist Johannes Weinrich, had a heated discussion about the bombing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Carlos said he wanted to do it Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day because no one would expect a bomb attack on those days. Weinrich agreed in principle, but said that they were not ready, as they did not have the cars they required, and suggested New Year’s Eve.
Weinrich then told Carlos that when he and the Swiss terrorist Bruno Breguet were doing surveillance of RFE/RL earlier that month, he had stopped to urinate against one of the trees on the RFE/RL grounds. Two guards were walking in his direction and saw him, but they did not say anything and kept going around the building. He noticed that one guard had a bunch of keys in one hand and a flashlight in the other. Because he had been seen, Weinrich told Carlos that he needed a new coat or the same guard might recognize him when they returned to bomb the building.
Weinrich said he would not shoot the guard first. Carlos asked, “Why not?” Weinrich answered that the shooting would draw unnecessary attention to them, and that a lighted Christmas tree blocked the view of guard anyway. Weinrich told Carlos that even if the bomb were discovered before it exploded, if anyone tried to move it, it would explode anyway, and the CIA would know just how professional their work was.
The original time for the bombing was scheduled to be 10:15 p.m. Weinrich told Carlos that he had plotted out that he and Bruno Breguet would need twelve minutes to get to the train station and head off from Munich in different directions. If they were discovered on the trains, they would have alibis. Breguet would take the train to Nuremberg, where he would change to a train that would arrive from Switzerland on the way to Berlin. He would exchange tickets with a helper, who was on that train, and Breguet would than continue to Berlin as if he had been on that train the whole time. Carlos told him that this was a great idea.
The bombing took place Saturday night, February 21, 1981. Weinrich and Breguet followed the script and left Munich on the selected trains as planned.
