When Dr. Abdullah Barakat arrived in Khartoum earlier this year from Beirut, only a handful of top officials knew he was one of the world's most dangerous terrorists.
To some of his trusting Sudanese contacts, he was a Syrian businessman with influential friends; to others, he revealed himself as an Iranian exile born of Iranian and Cuban parents.These were just two of the many aliases of Illich Ramirez Sanchez, better known as Carlos the Jackal.
In earlier years he masqueraded as a wealthy gulf sheik called Mubarak bin Rashid. He also went under the identities of Talal Abdullah al Bakri, Murad Shaker Aziz, Nadim Yussef Ouf, Khalid Khwaja bin Mohammed, Alfred Boyarer, Hector Logo Dimonte, Glen Gehardet, Sanan Mario Clark, Adolfo Bernal and Andre Carlos.
These names were attached to a variety of passports, including those from Yemen, Iraq, Pakistan, Syria and Afghanistan.
Even Khartoum airport security was kept in the dark about the VIP who regularly flew in and out of the country. He was described as a personal friend of Hasan al Tourabi, the Sudanese military government's chief ideologue and head of the National Islamic Front.
His equally mysterious friends, a Palestinian called Ali al Essawi and two Europeans named Johannes Weinrich and Bruno Bruget, who accompanied him on his last flight from Beirut, were also assumed to be Tourabi's guests.
Arab diplomats believe Weinrich is Carlos's treasurer and henchman. He's wanted in Germany, France, Italy and Belgium.
Tourabi's patronage guaranteed Carlos both security and anonymity until he was handed over to the French at the beginning of a week in which the links between Paris and Khartoum have been shown to be stronger than thought. On Saturday it emerged, for instance, that France has almost doubled the amount of humanitarian aid to the regime in Khartoum.
For Carlos, Tourabi's friendship was crucial: it was he who gave Carlos an escort of armed security guards and permission to carry personal weapons.
Sources in the Egyptian intelligence service, which had been following Carlos since his arrival in Khartoum, say Tourabi was personally involved in resolving a lovers' tiff between Carlos and his Palestinian mistress, Zeinab, the widow of a Sudanese government official. (His estranged wife, Magdalena Kop, lives with their daughter in Venzuela.) The dispute erupted after Zeinab discovered that Carlos was having another affair with a 25-year-old blonde.
Egyptian agents have even obtained photographs of Carlos at private functions in the company of some Sudanese government officials.
"He used to enjoy some kind of immunity," an Egyptian security official said in an interview. "He used to carry his personal arms in public, and he was escorted by two guards called Hussein and Amr, as well as a high-ranking army officer."
Carlos was also a regular guest of Sudanese military academies, where he was introduced as an expert in strategic studies.
"We have many pictures of him entering and leaving government offices," the Egyptian source added. "We also have pictures of him at late-night parties dancing with a number of women."
At one reception in March at Khartoum's Armenian Club, Carlos was sufficiently intoxicated to boast of his special relationship with the leaders of the country. It was then that he said he was the son of an Iranian father and Cuban mother.
He said political problems with Iranian authorities obliged him to flee Tehran for the comparative safety of Iraq. He explained his subsequent presence in Khartoum by saying he had found success as an arms dealer and he was helping Tourabi's government to buy weapons for the war against rebel forces in southern Sudan.
On one occasion, Sudanese police enforcing the country's strict sharia laws, which prohibit the consumption of alcohol, raided a party and arrested all the guests, including Carlos. He was the only one released without charge. When friends asked why, he smilingly told them he had powerful friends who had given him the freedom of Khartoum.
"He fooled everyone here, including myself," says a Sudanese businessman who described himself as one of Carlos's former associates.
"This fraud introduced himself to me about a year ago by claiming to be a Syrian merchant married to a Sudanese lady called Zeinab. He even showed me a Syrian passport and said he held a doctorate in economics from London University. I never imagined he was one of the world's most wanted terrorists."
As part of his cover, Carlos rented a basement apartment in the prestigious Ar Riyadh quarter of Khartoum. By all accounts, he was a big spender, giving $100 tips to waiters at his favorite Armenian Club. His government-assigned guards accompanied him everywhere, turning a blind eye to his drinking bouts.
Another favorite haunt was the Meridien Hotel in downtown Khartoum. The hotel receptionist recalls Carlos sitting in a corner of the hotel lobby drinking black coffee.
The hotel barber has another story. "He would come in here for a haircut at least twice a month. Sometimes he would ask to have his mustache removed. Once I asked him why he alternated between growing his mustache and then shaving it off. He replied, `The madame does not like moustaches these days.'
"It makes no difference to me that he was Carlos; he was always gentle and generous with me."
Another Sudanese businessman living in Cairo says he always understood that Barakat was a partner in a garment factory. "This was one of the biggest factories in Khartoum. His partner was the son of Sudan's most famous merchant, and we understood they used to import Thai laborers to work in the factory."
The Sudanese businessman, who has close links to the Khartoum regime, confirmed that Carlos was involved in the arms trade. He is credited with purchasing spare parts from North Korea for the Sudanese air force's MiG fighter aircraft.
Every Arab party for which Carlos worked - whether in Syria, Libya, Lebanon or Sudan - is now seeking to distance itself from him. Yemen, which once offered him sanctuary, has discovered that Carlos was involved in a series of kidnappings and killings of Yemeni citizens in Beirut and London.
Yemeni diplomats in Cairo say Carlos is linked to the murder of former Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmed al Hojari and his deputy, Mohammed Ahmed Naman. The Yemenis have asked Paris to permit their interrogators to question Carlos in his French cell.
But they have yet to explain how Carlos managed to procure a Yemeni diplomatic passport, No. 1,278, which allowed him to roam the globe.