Sowing Seeds of Terror and Suspicion

The Second Crusade for Freedom campaign was a very creative campaign used to rally Americans to support Radio Free Europe and Radio Free Asia. 

The use of the word “freedom” was widespread in the campaign, as we have read about the Freedom Train, Freedom Motorcade, Marathon for Freedom, Winds of Freedom, and Freedom Belles.

Then actor Ronald Reagan narrated both the 1950 movie The Big Truth and the August 27, 1951, released shorter version that was used for television advertising, in which he said this about RFE:

This station daily pierces the iron curtain with the truth, answering the lies of the Kremlin and bringing a message of hope to millions trapped behind the iron curtain. Grateful letters from listeners smuggled past the secret police express thanks to Radio Free Europe for identifying Communist quislings and informers by name.

In the summer of 1951, “All this We Know” was one of the most popular Radio Free Europe programs to Czechoslovakia. RFE broadcast names of “known informers and spies” in that country. The Advertising Council in its Crusade for Freedom newspaper kit used the following graphic and text, for example to describe a murder in Czechoslovakia:

In the darkness of night, the blackest of crimes was recently committed in Nemsova, Czechoslovakia. A Catholic priest, on his way to administer the last rites to a dying member of his parish, was ambushed by a gang of Communist thugs ... stabbed in the back ... murdered! Who was guilty of this horrible crime? Within a few hours the people of Nemsova knew.

Early the next evening these words were broadcast to all of Czechoslovakia:

This is Radio Free Europe speaking. All Czech patriots' remember this name. Frano. Red Deputy Frano of Lednicke Rovne. He has long been the terror of the entire Trencin region. He is personally responsible for the murder of a Catholic priest in Nemsova, at 2:15 A.M. this morning. He sent one of his agents to the parish to advise the priest that a man was dying in the neighboring village. Naturally, the priest left immediately to administer the Last Sacraments. Other agents of Frano—following instructions—were waiting on the road, knife in hand.

Remember this well. Frano will not escape punishment, even as the other, communist-fascist criminals will not escape punishment.

Another Ad Council advertisement used the same photograph of Frano for a secret police agent identified as named Stefan Stupinsky.

Attention! Radio Free Europe calls on Presov. Citizens of Presov -- in your town, the national manager of the Cafe Cergov, Stefan Stupinsky, is a dangerous agent of the Communist State Police. Do not be misled by his simulated friendliness, by his anti-Communist talk. Stupinsky takes advantage of the people who dine in his care -- trying to draw things out of them to report to the State Police.

Both photographs, according to the advertisements, were “posed by patriotic Americans.”

The Crusade for Freedom put together a long playing (33 rpm) record to be played at local Crusade fundraising meetings and, possibly, by local radio stations. Listeners could have heard about both Stefan Stupinsky and Comrade Frano.

The record was just digitalized by the Hoover Institution, Stanford University and put on-line with the description:

Side One: "What Do They Really Think of Us"

Narrated by NBC commentator Ben Grauer, it uses emotional interviews with East European refugees who dislike America to justify the need for RFE as well as testimony from displaced persons who praise the U.S. for bringing the message of freedom to those behind the Iron Curtain. Lucius D.  Clay, National Chairman of the Crusade for Freedom, praises the Radio in the American Sector (RIAS) Berlin as a model for RFE and appeals for contributions to buy additional transmitters. The Freedom Bell in West Berlin is heard at the end of the recording.

Side Two; "The Radio Free Europe Story"

  

RFE Director Robert Lang describes the  RFE broadcasts to Czechoslovakia from Munich that started on May 1, 1951. The program schedule includes newscasts, messages from relatives in the West, "Date with Eva" - an early DJ program, a program naming alleged regime collaborators and spies, and religious services. Messages from Free Europe Committee chairman C.D. Jackson and RFE Czechoslovak Service chief Ferdinand Peroutka are read. The recording ends with a singing of the Czechoslovak national anthem and ringing of the Freedom Bell.

Robert (Bob) Lang can be heard saying on side two, “We quite openly sow the seeds of terror and suspicion among the Communists, both the Russian intruders and the home-grown variety. And in so doing, save many of our listeners’ lives.”

The record can be heard in full on the Hoover Institution's RFE/RL "Collection Highlights" page: http://hoorferl.stanford.edu/RFE/collectionHighlights.php.

And on the Hoover Institution's Channel on youtube.com:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuG9COzvbS0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZvFSY57w98

Kenneth Campbell wrote in The New York Times on May 23, 1951: "The highly personalized chill of terror that comes from being denounced by name over the radio -- a form of terrorism heretofore considered a special weapon of Communist and Fascist nations -- is being served back with interest to at least one Iron Curtain country in Europe by Radio Free Europe."

In the Shadow of Carlos: The Curious Terrorist Career of Johannes Weinrich

Below we will look, briefly, at his terrorist career of the German terrorist Johannes Weinrich and his relationship to the terrorist known as Carlos the Jackal.

Johannes Weinrich was born in Brakel, Germany on July 21, 1947. His initiation into the world of terrorism began in Frankfurt within a circle of left-wing radicals that that congregated around the "Red Star" bookstore and publishing house. In the early 1970s, Weinrich was known for his role in initiating anti-Vietnam demonstrations for being part of the founding member of the Solidarity Committee with the Black Panther movement in the United States. 

Over the years the media has misidentified Weinrich as being part of the core of the German terrorism group Red Army Faction. This is not so: he was part of another German terrorist group Revolutionary Cells (Revolutionäre Zelle -- RZ. In Frankfurt, Weinrich then met Magdalena Kopp--the future girlfriend and later wife of Carlos. Weinrich left Frankfurt and opened his own bookstore near the university in Bochum, Germany, where he stayed for a few years.

It is not yet clear how and when Weinrich first met Carlos. His first act of international terrorism was in January 1975 when he rented and drove a Peugeot automobile using the name Fritz Mueller. This car was used in Carlos unsuccessful rocket attack on the Israeli El Al airliner at Orly airport outside Paris. Two months later Weinrich was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany for his participation in the rocket attack.

Red Army Faction (RAF) terrorists forcibly occupied the West German embassy in Stockholm, Sweden, on April 24, 1975, in a failed attempt to free “political prisoners”, i.e. fellow terrorists jailed in West Germany. Weinrich's name was on the list of terrorists to be freed. 

In November 1975, Weinrich's health had deteriorated, and he was released from prison on bond to his family--Magdalena Kopp contributed one third of the money for the bond. Weinrich left West Germany and by 1977 he was a core member of Carlos' group then called the Organization of the Armed Arab Struggle--Arm of the Arab Revolution.

By 1979, Weinrich, as "Steve," was the right-hand man of Carlos and reportedly was responsible for the estimated 40 European members of the OAAS and for liaison with various East European and Cuban intelligence officers. Stasi files made available after the collapse of Communism in East Germany contain this February 1981 show the close relationship between Carlos and Weinrich: "Weinrich is a former member of the Revolutionary Cells in the Federal Republic of Germany, and his responsibility in Carlos' group is to direct the group's activities in Europe. He is one of the people who can partly influence Carlos.

After the bombing of RFE/RL, the Carlos group had financial problems. Weinrich told Carlos in one letter that his financial situation was so critical that he seriously considered asking his parents in Germany for a loan of 50.000 to 100,000 DM.

On May 31, 1983, Weinrich flew from Bucharest to East Berlin using a Syrian diplomatic pass with the name Heinrich Schneider. Reportedly, his baggage was searched and 24.3 kilograms (50 pounds) of the Romanian plastic explosive Netropinta were found. A computer check of Weinrich showed his connection to the Carlos group. A Stasi officer came to the airport and released Weinrich, but not the explosives. For the next weeks, Weinrich unsuccessfully tried to get Stasi to release the explosives. He stayed at the Intercontinental Hotel in East Berlin until June 10, 1983, when he flew back to Bucharest; it is not know when he returned to East Berlin.

The plastic explosives stayed under the control of Stasi officer Helmut Voigt of Department XXII, who as Helmut was the Stasi contact man for the Carlos Group. Even though papers found on Weinrich in May indicated an attack was planned on the French Consulate and Cultural Center in West Berlin, after months of further discussion between Voigt and Weinrich, the explosives were released to Weinrich on August 16, 1983. He in turn gave them to Nabil Shritah (Charitah), the Third Secretary of the Syrian Embassy for safekeeping. A week later, Weinrich went to the Embassy and retrieved the explosives.

The explosives were then carried to West Berlin in a car driven by Abul Hakam, the Arab-nations contact man of Carlos' Group. In West Berlin, he met a Lebanese member Carlos Group named Ahmad el-Sibai.  El-Sibai placed the explosive in a building next to the French Cultural Center (Maison de France) and on August 25, 1983, at 11:50 AM, the bomb went off. Damage was estimated to be in excess of 2.5 million DM, one person was killed and over 20 were injured. Abul Hakam flew to Budapest and El-Sibai flew to Damascus the next day.

Weinrich understood the importance of the Carlos Myth in their Theater of Terrorism. At one point, the Stasi asked Weinrich for the whereabouts of Carlos. He told Carlos, "They do think you are in Bucharest ... My reply was, we are everywhere and nowhere in the same time, one can find us only in the underground.”

In 1994, Helmut Voigt was sentenced to 4-years imprisonment for his involvement in the bombing of the French Cultural Center. The verdict was the first time that a former Stasi agent was found guilty of committing a crime as part of his official duties. Nabil Shritah testified against Voigt

Financial problems also continued to haunt Carlos in August 1983. From Damascas, Syria, on August 19, 1983, he wrote a letter to Weinrich, which read, in part:

Dearest Steve:

First of all I want to inform you of the latest news: today I phoned Lybia, spoke to Salem, when I told him that I wanted to travel there, he told me that on monday he is traveling to Damascus and that we can meet here. I will use the French intervention in Chad as a pretext to restart cooperation. I have not waitied any longer because all my money is finished with Feisals's trip (he takes $2000 for you and $500 reserve).There is left only the $15,000 dollars reserve.

Get from Bucharest all the papers and photgraphs regarding the old Jewish woman in Rome whom you phoned once. I think we should engage ourselves in this affair next month after her return from holidays. Convince Tina and Kai to prepare it and if possible to execute it. If needed, either Feisal or Farig will go as well. Please remember that this is a one million dollars business! 

Tina was the code name for Wihelmine Götting -- she was also known as Julia, Lina and Martine. Kai was Gerd Albartus. Both had belonged to the German terrorist group Revolutionary Cells. 

Reportedly, Albartus wanted out of the group and in December 1987 he flew to Damascus, where he was put on trial as a “traitor” by Carlos and the group, sentenced to death and killed. 

Weinrich remained in East Berlin for one day and then flew to Belgrade, Yugoslavia. While there he wrote a 27-page letter using the name Peter on August 29, 1983, in English to Carlos (using the name Michel). 

Here is how he described the bombing of the French Cultural Center:

Dearest Michel

1) OPERATION BERLIN

Regarding Helmet, it is clear that we could trick them, mainly on behalf solidarious help given by Nabil. By the way: he knows about the Operation but as he told and suggested me, not officially ... Because he gave me the hand in keeping explosives without informing the Ambassador, who was absent, but came back before the Operation. So officially Nabil doesn't know about the Operation, only the fact that I brought a bag and took it later.

Helmet was always warning us, not to have an operation in West  going directly from East and returning.  We always denied and kept the cover of only transporting the bag to the West. They seemed to me on Friday -- last meeting with them -- not to be sure, if we have done it or the ASALA.  And I kept the story: telling them in a way that ASALA never claimed an operation, if not carried out by them.

The Operation itself had bigger impact than I've expected.  I sent you the pictures for showing to Omar -- if you want -- , but please send them back 

by next occasion."

And a big kiss for you.

Yours Peter

ASALA was the terrorist group Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia. 

In the 1990s, according to reliable sources, Weinrich proudly drove a Mercedes in Damascus and had it repaired regularly at the Mercedes dealership. He regularly attended parties given by prominent German citizens in Damascus. 

Johannes Weinrich was arrested in a suburb of Aden, Yemen and extradited in June 1995 to Germany. Even the details of Weinrich's arrest were shrouded in a “myth.”  One Yemeni official said he had been arrested “several months after the end of the civil war in Yemen in July 1994.” He was using a Somali passport identifying him as John Saleh. He also had a passport in the name Peter Smith. German authorities, on the other hand, said he had been arrested on June 1, 1995, after a long German-led investigation. 

The trial of Johannes Weinrich began in Berlin Wednesday, February 28, 1996 for the bombing of the French Cultural Center in Berlin. He was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment for the attack on the French Cultural Center. 

In March 2003, the trial of Johannes Weinrich for his role in the bombing of RFE/RL began in Berlin. Magdalena Kopp, called as a state witness, refused to testify. However, in her various sworn statements to German prosecutors before the trial, she clearly identified Romanian intelligence involvement in the bombing of RFE/RL and confirmed that Carlos was praised in Bucharest after the bombing. She said that she was given the task of going to Bucharest in January 1980 to set up the relationship between the Romanian “secret police” and Carlos. She added that the Group received weapons and explosives, part of which went to the ETA. Because of her apparent cooperation with the German Prosecutor's Office, her legal status changed from "suspect" to "witness" in the bombing of RFE/RL. The presiding judge decided not to continue the trial for the bombing as Weinrich was already serving a life sentence.

For more information:

Appendix D of my book Cold War Radio has the full text of the August 19, 1983, Carlos letter to Weinrich and Appendix F is the full text of the August 29, 1983, letter from Weinrich to Carlos.

In German, Fritz Schmaldienst and Klaus –Dieter Matschke, Carlos-Komplize Weinrich: Die internationale Karriere eines deutschen Top-Terroristen, Eichborn Verlag, 1995.

Code Word Cobra: The 1984 Plan to Bomb RFE/RL

Reposted from April 10, 2011

Expelled Diplomats

On November 7, 2007, the Institute for the Investigation of Communist Crimes in Romania (IICCR) lodged a penal notification with the "High Court of Cassation and Justice" regarding acts of terrorism committed by General Nicolae Plesita (then Director of Foreign Intelligence-CIE) and five former "diplomats" from the Romanian Embassy in Bonn, who were expelled from West Germany in 1984. According to the IICCR penal notification, "The evidence also sustains their implication in other terrorist attacks, toxic gas assaults or the kidnapping and assassination of other persons."

Below we will look at who the "diplomats" were and for which reasons they were expelled.

After its bombing of RFE/RL in 1981, led by the terrorist "Carlos the Jackal" in February 1981, the CIE renewed plans to bomb the building. In September 1984 a code clerk at the Romanian embassy in Bonn, BRD, defected to the West. To establish his bona fides, he presented a copy of a 13-page physical surveillance report that was written by Ion Constantin, a Romanian Intelligence Service officer. His "exploratory" surveillance report was based on two days of personal observation at RFE/RL headquarters on October 12-13, 1983.

Constantin was listed as the "Third Secretary, Chief of the Consular Section."  Another Two other CIE officers named Constantin Ciobanu and Ion Mihoc, listed as the "Councilor of the Embassy" and "Second Secretary, Chief, Technical Burea" respectively, followed up Constantin's 13-page report by an "on-the-spot" survey afterwards.  

In December 1983, Constantin attended a two-day conference in Bucharest during which time his report and that of Ciobanu and Mihoc were reviewed. One or two days before leaving for Bucharest Constantin handed to the code clerk a package of material for destruction. Normally, the destruction of the material should have been carried out by both the code clerk and Constantin; but Constantin was in a hurry and simply left the material with the code clerk to destroy. The code clerk read the 13-page report, saw its significance and decided to keep it.

Constantin was ordered to gather more information and made two subsequent trips to Munich in 1984. 

From discussions with Constantin, the code clerk learned about a group at CIE Headquarters, designated C-428, which deals with such "diversionary" acts, i.e., organizes physical attacks on anti-Romanian personnel abroad. C-428 depended on CIE residencies abroad to collect information in support of its plans, but usually hired foreigners to carry of the operations themselves. Constantin had received instructions to collect detailed information from C-428 on the RFE/RL facility in Munich, referred to by the code name "Cobra."  The code clerk recalled that Constantin remarked: "they want to place bombs at the radio station."

Constantin's 13-page report and sketch of the "target" (RFE/RL) described

·      traffic in the area, 

·      traffic signs and parking, 

·      the facility and wall surrounding it, 

·      the different entrances/gates, 

·      certain offices on the first floor, 

·      the presence of certain security personnel, and other installations in the immediate vicinity.

Constantin concluded his report by noting that he had collected a number of different city plans, tour books, and postcards which covered the target and its immediate surroundings, plus 24 photos of the target and its immediate surroundings (the Hilton Hotel, Bavarian Bank, Isar River, etc.). Also, there was mention of the Tivoli Restaurant, because he presumed that RFE/RL Romanian staff members frequented that restaurant.

The following is from the 1984 annual report of the Bavarian Agency for the Protection of the Constitution (LfV):

When an intelligence officer of the Romanian Embassy in Bonn defected to the West in 1984 important information was obtained on the activities of the Romanian Intelligence Service on the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany. The defector presented evidence of the preparation and the actual carrying out of criminal activities with a political background by the Intelligence Service, represented by officers of the Romanian Foreign Intelligence Service CIE who had diplomatic status with the Romanian Embassy in Bonn.

In addition to the plot to bomb RFE/RL, the LfV report detailed another case of CIE activities:

On 2 May 1984 a tear gas assault was made on a Romanian born German citizen, residing in Cologne by two Romanian "tourists" who allegedly had traveled from Paris to Cologne. The unidentified culprits escaped from the house of the victim with money, papers and documents. The victim was known as a former communist, faithful to the regime and carrying out an official mission in the Federal Republic of Germany. After her return to Romania she lost her former position with the Romanian Party because of alleged anti-Romanian behavior in a foreign country; she took advantage of her stay in a Southern European country to remain in the West. Since that time she had been active within the Romanian emigre circles in the Federal Republic of Germany. The attack which had the case name of RITA - CORBU had been organized and directed by the Romanian Embassy in Cologne or Bonn respectively. Ion GRECU, Counter Intelligence Chief of the CIE, First Secretary and Press Attache of the Embassy was the one directing the case. Cultural Attache LUPU had been ordered to deceive the victim, spy on her following the attack and distract the suspicion from the Romanian Embassy.

A third case of CIE activity involved a plan to kidnap a Romanian refugee who had escaped to Germany in May 1984.  If the kidnapping failed, he was to be killed.  

In November 1984, the West Germany ordered the expulsion of the five CIE officers for “behaving in a manner incompatible with their status.“ They were

·      Dan Mihoc, 

·      Constantin Ciobanu,

·      Ion Constantin, 

·      Ioan Lupu and

·      Ion Grecu. 

Die Welt publshed an exclusive article on November 9, 1984, which contained this ominous reference to Dan Mihoc: “Mihoc was ordered by his superiors in Bucharest in January this year to buy a set of specialized medical works about poisons that could not be traced by autopsies, and he sent the volumes to the Romanian capital.“ This article was then used by newspapers in other countries, including the United States.

For more information: a redacted version of the penal notification in Romanian can be viewed at  http://www.crimelecomunismului.ro/pdf/ro/sesizare_penala_pt_acte_terorism.pdf.

Bruno Breguet: The Case of the Missing Terrorist

Reposted from June 26, 2011

In Preparing for the Munich Tango, we read about Johannes Weinrich and Bruno Breguet and their involvement in the "Carlos" bombing of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty on February 21, 1981. I already outlined the terrorist career of Johannes Weinrich; below we will briefly look at that of Bruno Brequet.

Bruno Breguet was born on May 29, 1950, in Coffrane, Switzerland. In 1970, when he was 19 years old, Israeli authorities arrested Breguet as he attempted to smuggle two kilograms of explosives into that country from Lebanon. His aim was to blow up a high-rise building in Tel Aviv on behalf of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment but was pardoned in 1977 and released from prison. He returned to Switzerland and, apparently, joined the Swiss terrorist group "Prima Linea." Breguet wrote a book La scuola dell'odio (The School of Hate) that was published in 1980 in Milan, Italy.

Bruno Breguet joined the "Carlos" terrorist group in September 1980 in Budapest, Hungary, and was given the code-name "Luca." In the night from September 24th to 25th, he attended a planning session to bomb RFE/RL. This is his first known activity with the "Carlos" Group. He became a "bomb expert" for the group.

Almost one year to the day after the bombing of RFE/RL, Magdalena Kopp ("Lilly") and Bruno Breguet ("Luca") were arrested in Paris on February 16, 1982, while preparing another “Tango”, a car bombing of the building, where the office of the Lebanese magazine Al Watan Al- Arabi was located. 

Breguet had arrived in Paris on January 2, 1982 to conduct surveillance of the magazine office and editors. Kopp had flown on February 6, 1982, to Paris from Bucharest with a false Austrian passport and driver's license produced by the Romanian intelligence service in the name Doris Berger. The Basque terrorist group ETA provided a white, Peugeot 504 automobile with explosives in the trunk, which she was to drive to the targeted building. She received the keys from the Belgian-born ETA terrorist Luc Edgar Groven ("Eric"); Breguet was to detonate the explosives.

Kopp and Breguet were arrested on February 16, 1982, outside a parking garage on the Champs Elysees after being confronted by security guards, who had challenged them as to what they were doing in the garage--she had difficulty opening the car and they could not produce a parking ticket. Brequet reportedly pointed a pistol at the guards. He and Kopp then ran from the garage but were immediately arrested by French police outside -- Brequet aimed the pistol at a policeman, pulled the trigger but it jammed and he was subdued.  

In the car, police found a map of Paris, a Belgian-made GP35 pistol, 2 kilos of Pentrite explosives, two Czechoslovak hand grenades, an alarm clock set for 10:30 PM that night and a battery complete with electrical wiring. According to later testimony of Magdalena Kopp, the magazine's office was to be bombed on a "contract" to "Carlos" from the Syrian government because of its previous anti-Syrian articles. In fact, on December 19, 1981, police were able to diffuse a dynamite explosive one minute before it was due to explode just outside the magazine's office. The Syrian Embassy in Paris was traced to that bombing attempt. "Carlos" visited Damascus in December and apparently then was given the contract to bomb the magazine's office.

"Carlos" in Budapest threatened the French government with retaliation, if the two were not released within 30 days. He signed the threatening letter "Carlos - Organization of Arab armed struggle - Arm of the Arab Revolution" and to prove his identity, he provided samples of his thumbprints.

To prove he was serious, on March 19, 1982, "Carlos" carried out his threat, for example, by organizing a bomb attack on the Paris-Toulon Express train--presumably carried out by the Basque terrorist group ETA. Five persons died and 30 were injured. Then French President Jacques Chiriac was scheduled to ride on that train but had canceled his reservations shortly before the train's departure. On April 21, 1982, another bomb exploded outside the French embassy in Vienna, killing an Austrian policeman who was guarding the building. 

Although there was the unsuccessful bomb attack in February, on April 22, 1982, the day the trial of Kopp and Breguet began in Paris, a car bomb exploded in front of office building, where the magazine Al Watan Al- Arabi was located, killing one and wounding over 60 other persons--10 seriously. 

The car was an orange-colored Opel Kadett with Austrian license plates. French investigators believed that German terrorist Christa-Margot Froehlich ("Heidi" in the Carlos group) rented and drove the car from Ljubljana, then Yugoslavia. Investigators also believed that she handed the car over to Johannes Weinrich, who then drove the car to the building housing the Al Watan Al- Arab magazine office.

Froehlich had joined the Carlos group in 1981 from the German terrorist group "Revolutionary Cells"--apparently recruited by Weinrich. She was later arrested by Italian police at Rome's airport on June 16, 1982. Froelich was traveling from Bucharest, Romania, under a false German passport and carrying a specially adapted suitcase that contained over three kilos of explosives, detonators and an alarm clock. She was later convicted and sentenced to six years imprisonment.

Officially, the French court was not intimidated and sentenced Kopp to four years imprisonment and Breguet to five. Yet, after Carlos' arrest, controversy broke out in France of the question of whether they were given lesser sentences because of Carlos' bombing attacks.  "Carlos" and his group continued their terrorist activity against French interests in December 1983: a suitcase bomb exploded at the Marseilles railroad station, killing two and wounding 45. In the same month, a bomb exploded aboard the French "bullet train" that killed three and injured four. The next month, a bomb blast at the French Cultural Center in Tripoli, Lebanon killed one person

Magdalena Kopp was released from prison on May 4, 1985, and flew to Damascus, Syria to be re-united with "Carlos."

Bruno Breguet were released from French prison on September 17, 1985, and returned to Switzerland. Reportedly, after his release Breguet gave up his terrorist career, yet in 1987/1988, Breguet reportedly was in meetings with the "Carlos Group" in Damascus, Syria. In any event, there are no reports that he was actively involved in any terrorist activity afterwards.

On November 11, 1995, after traveling from Greece to Italy on the ferryboat "Lato", Italian authorities refused Breguet entry and returned him on the same ship. Since then, Bruno Breguet has not been seen in public again. He was 45 years old.

The myth about Bruno Breguet continued when one story surfaced in late 1996 that Breguet was in French custody in Budapest, Hungary. He was being confronted with witnesses and documents, particularly concerning the implication of high French authorities in arms traffic to Algeria. This traffic supposedly involved high French ministerial officials and also high regional officials in Nice. Reportedly, French DST (counter-espionage) found him in Croatia and passed the information to the DGSE (foreign intelligence service) that sent member of its Special Forces to capture Breguet and take him to Budapest. Breguet reportedly cooperated with French intelligence and justice officials.

In February 2009, "Carlos" wrote an appeal letter in behalf of Bruno Breguet to U.S. President Barack Obama:

Mister President, Your decision to close secret C.I.A. jails, honours you.

Our Comrade Bruno Breguet, a Swiss citizen, was abducted on 11th November 1995 from a ferryboat between Italy and Greece, in a special operation with NATO naval support.

We pray you to have Bruno released.

We were informed unofficially, that Bruno died accidentally during interrogation at a U.S. base in the south of Hungary.

If Bruno truly is dead, we need his body back, so his relatives, friends, and comrades, may mourn in neutral Switzerland, this hero of the Palestinian Cause, and his eternal soul join our martyrs in heaven.

Do not hesitate to have your services contact my Swiss attorney Marcel Bosonnet, and the coordinator of my defence team, and dearest wife, Maître Isabelle Coutant (Peyre), of the Paris Bar.

To erase the infamy attached to Guantanamo base, do return that occupied territory to its rightful owners, the Cuban people, on this 50th anniversary of their revolution.

I pray God Almighty that one day the peoples of our continent, free at last, may shout with one voice: “God bless our America!”

And as your grandfather would say:

«ALLAHOU AKBAR!»

         I remain, Mister President, yours in revolution