r information on Israel and Arab countries the East Germans provided training in espionage and guerrilla warfare. No direct approach was made to Carlos during his time in East Berlin but Stasi agents monitored his movements in a way that ensured that Carlos was aware of their presence. They later made direct contact with Johannes Weinrich to ascertain his leaders intentions and eventually endorsed his actions. Carlos later travelled to Cuba and formed an alliance with Fidel Castro but a further trip to Moscow failed to gain any such support from the Soviets. The Hungarian authorities, while failing to officially endorse Carlos and his group, allowed him to maintain a string of safe houses in Budapest. In January 1982, Carlos began to lay plans for an attack in France. After forming an alliance with a Swiss extremist group, plans were laid to destroy a nuclear plant that was under construction in Central France. Shortly before midnight on January 18, a group including Magdelana Kopp fired an RPG-7 rocket launcher across the River Rhone at the outer shell of the reactor but, despite firing five rockets, failed to penetrate the thick concrete causing only minor damage. Prior to the rocket attack, Kopp's involvement had been limited to forging documents and maintaining communications with other guerrilla groups, but she was soon selected for another mission. In February 1982, she left Budapest and travelled to Paris. Her companion on the trip was a Swiss revolutionary named Bruno Breguet who had previously served seven years of a fifteen-year sentence for attempting to smuggle explosives into Israel. As an active member of the Popular Front at the time, he was the first European to be imprisoned for pro-Palestinian activities. After arriving in Paris, the mission suffered a setback when Kopp's handbag, containing $50,000 in cash and several fake passports, was stolen. Two days later she and Breguet were apprehended in an und...
