Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

ORGANIZATION FOR THE ARMED ARAB STRUGGLE • 507government responded with a crackdown, eventually imprisoningaround 4,000 OAS activists.ORGANIZATION FOR THE ARMED ARAB STRUGGLE(OAAS). The OAAS was a group founded and run by the VenezuelanIlich Ramírez Sánchez, better known as Carlos, and accordinglythe group was known also as the Carlos Apparat. The group wasestablished sometime after 1976 when Carlos had moved to Aden,South Yemen, although it did not become active until 1982. Whilethe group generally carried out actions in support of Arab revolutionarycauses, it appeared to be primarily an entrepreneurial ratherthan an ideological group, that is, it worked for Arab regimes orgroups on a contract basis. It could also be viewed as entrepreneurialsince it helped to aggrandize the reputation or myth of Carlos, itsfounder, as a master terrorist. This group was very small and wassupported by Iraq, Libya, Romania, and Syria. Members of the smallgroup included German, Lebanese, and Syrian radicals.Carlos was a leader within the Popular Front for the Liberation ofPalestine-Special Operations Group (PFLP-SOG) and directed the21 December 1975 OPEC siege and seizure of the Secretariat in Viennain which several oil ministers were seized for ransom. Followingthis action, Carlos dropped from public view. He was believed to havebecome a contractual consultant to various Arab regimes and MiddleEastern terrorist groups, particularly the three groups that emergedfrom the breakup of the PFLP-SOG in 1978, namely, the May 15 Organization,the Lebanese Armed Revolutionary Factions, and thePFLP-Special Command. It is believed that the Romanian regime alsocontacted the Carlos Apparat to carry out assassinations of Romaniandissidents living in France. The East German secret police, the Stasi,also assisted Carlos in planning the bombing of the French culturalcenter, the Maison de France, in West Berlin in 1983.The OAAS emerged in 1982 with a series of attacks on Frenchtargets both in Lebanon and in Europe, including an 18 January1982 attack using shoulder-mounted rockets against the uncompletedbuildings of the Superphénix nuclear reactor complex inCreys-Malville, France; the 25 August 1983 bombing of the Maisonde France cultural center in West Berlin that killed one person andinjured 23 others; two bombings on 31 December 1983 of railroad facilitiesin France; and the 1 January 1984 bombing of another French