Published in 1981, Claire Sterling’s The Terror Network (Holt, Rinehart and Winston; New York) remained the definitive exploration of terrorism for many years. A gifted and tenacious reporter, Sterling nosed through most of the connections between the Radical Leftists, Palestinians and their Soviet Bloc sponsors who revived international terrorism in the 1970s.
All our favorite thugs of yester-year are here: “Carlos the Jackal”; George Habash, Ulrike Meinhof; plus some names that still haven’t vanished from the newspapers – Muamar Qaddafi, Fidel Castro, ETA and the Provisionals. While long eclipsed by the Jihadists of today; the revolutionary misfits and wannabes of yesterday did make a potent threat, once provided with training, arms and money by a hostile USSR. What they did is worth remembering and Claire’s book is an excellent history of their infamy.
