ABSTRACT
The chapter explores the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) hostage taking based on primary sources from Austrian and German archives and focuses (1) on the operational background, (2) on the event itself and (3) on the political and judicial consequences. The OPEC hostage taking was a major step in the development of modern terrorist violence. Contrary to ‘older’ forms with a primarily nationalistic outlook, it was planned and carried out transnationally. During the 2000/2001 trail of Hans-Joachim Klein for his involvement in the OPEC hostage taking, new evidence was presented, that a state sponsor had also been involved. The OPEC hostage managed to attract worldwide media attention and made Carlos a notorious ‘poster boy’ of international terrorism. In 2010, Olivier Assayas presented his film Carlos, a biography of Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, which also enacted the OPEC hostage taking.
