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Jan Oscar Sverre Lucien Henri Guillou (pron. /jɑːn ˌgɪˈjuː/; born January 17, 1944) is one of the most famous Swedish authors and journalists. Among his many books, the most well-known are the novels about Swedish spy Carl Hamilton and the trilogy about Knight Templar Arn Magnusson. Guillou's daughter Ann-Linn is a journalist and feminist commentator.

Guillou rose to fame following his exposure of a secret intelligence scandal in 1973 (known as the "IB affair"), for which he was sentenced to ten months prison. Today he is an influential independent commentator of current events, particularly the conflicts in the Middle East and miscellaneous domestic issues. In his columns in Sweden's leading tabloid newspaper Aftonbladet he tends to criticize the way the United States pursues its war on terror, the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories, the Swedish Security Service and the powers vested in "experts" in for instance court trials.

Contents 1 Early career 2 The IB affair 3 Television 4 Books 4.1 Hamilton 4.2 Crusades trilogy 4.3 Ondskan 5 Controversial views 5.1 Iraq – The New Arabia 6 Trivia 7 References

Guillou was born in Södertälje, Sweden of a French father and a Norwegian mother. He worked as a journalist for FIB - aktuellt in 1966 and 1967 and co-founded the Folket i Bild - Kulturfront magazine, for which he wrote between 1970 and 1977.

In 1973, Folket i Bild - Kulturfront published a series of articles written by Guillou and Peter Bratt that revealed Sweden's secret and illegal military intelligence agency (Informationsbyrån or IB for short). The organization collected information on Swedish citizens for political purposes and it became a major political scandal, known as the IB affair (IB-affären). Guillou and Bratt were convicted of espionage got 10 month. In practice, he served 5 months in solitude. Guillou was first imprisoned at the Långholmen prison in central Stockholm and later at the Österåker Prison north of Stockholm.

He authored and narrated the history documentary series "The Era of The Witches" (Häxornas Tid) for TV4 Sweden,^[1] was the host of the sometimes controversial investigative journalism programme Rekordmagazinet for Sveriges television in the 1980's and has appeared in numerous other Swedish television programmes. He have olso authored and narrated the history documentary series "Arns rike" in five parts. Its about the time when Sweden becom a country.

In 1986 Guillou published a novel about the fictional Swedish military spy Carl Hamilton. He has the equivalent training of a U.S. Navy SEAL with leftist background, dubbed Coq Rouge by one of his superiors, while he was temporarily in the security police (Säkerhetspolisen). The first Coq Rouge novel was followed by ten more books.

Several characters in the books are based on actual persons. Jan Guillou himself is the basis of a character named Erik Ponti, which is also the name Guillou uses in the autobiographical novel Ondskan (literally: Evil).

A complete list of the Coq Rouge novels:

• Coq Rouge - berättelsen om en svensk spion (1986) (literally: Coq Rouge - the story of a Swedish spy)
• Den demokratiske terroristen (1987) (literally: The democratic terrorist)
• I nationens intresse (1988) (literally: In interest of the nation)
• Fiendens fiende (1989; English translation Enemy's Enemy 1994)
• Den hedervärde mördaren (1990) (literally: The honourable murderer)
• Vendetta (1991)
• Ingen mans land (1992) (literally: No mans land)
• Den enda segern (1993) (literally: The only victory)
• I hennes majestäts tjänst (1994) (literally: In service of her majesty)
• En medborgare höjd över varje misstanke (1995) (literally: A citizen raised above every suspicion)
• Madame Terror (2006)

A partial draft of an eleventh novel, along with Guillou's account on why it could not be completed, was published as Hamlon in 1995.

A number of film and TV adaptations have been made based on the Hamilton character:

• Code Name Coq Rouge, portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård (1989)
• Förhöret, portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård (Television, 1989) (literally: The interrogation)
• Enemy's Enemy, portrayed by Peter Haber (Television miniseries 1990)
• The Democratic Terrorist, portrayed by Stellan Skarsgård (1992)
• Vendetta, portrayed by Stefan Sauk (1995)
• Tribunal, portrayed by Stefan Sauk (Television, 1995)
• Hamilton, portrayed by Peter Stormare (1998, television miniseries 2001)

Main article The Knight Templar (Crusades trilogy).

After finishing the Coq Rouge series, Guillou wrote a trilogy about Arn Magnusson, a fictional Swedish character from the Middle Ages who was forced to become a Knight Templar and after returning to Sweden, was a leading military figure shortly before the time of Birger Jarl. The trilogy, dubbed the Crusades trilogy, consists of the following books:

• The road to Jerusalem (1998)
• The Knight Templar (1999), ISBN 0-7528-4650-7
• The kingdom at the end of the road (2000)

He also wrote a follow-up novel about Birger Jarl, the Heritage of Arn (2001).

Guillou has also written an autobiographical book about his school years, Ondskan (1981) which also became a film, Evil (2003). The movie was nominated for an Academy Award in 2003, but Guillou was unable to attend as he is still listed as a terrorist by the USA (presumably because he was a member of the militant Palestinian Marxist-Leninist group DFLP during the late 60s). He managed to get a visa, but it was linked to attending the Academy Award ceremony for which Guillou claimed the director Mikael Håfström had handed away his ticket to his spouse^[2]. There is a follower to the book called Tjuvarnas Marknad (Market of Thieves).

Guillou has consistently criticized Israel in harsh terms, comparing its occupation of Palestinian territories to South African apartheid as well as claiming that Zionism is potentially racist. Regarding the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza he has said the following:

"an apartheid system, exactly like South Africa"^[3]

"[The] difference between Israel and the apartheid state of South Africa is that Israel executes more people and is keeping more people in jails and military enforced ghetto zones."^[4]

Guillou participated in early radio broadcasts hosted by Ahmed Rami. At first Rami focused on criticism of Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories^{[citation needed]}, but as he drifted towards holocaust denial and Nazi sympathies, Guillou refused to participate in the programs. Rami has currently ceased his radio broadcasts, but still runs the internet site Radio Islam, which features quotes from Guillou dating from broadcasts in the late 1980s as well as more recent citations and paragraphs from articles penned by Guillou.

In the book Iraq – The New Arabia of 1976, Guillou claims that the Jewish exodus from Iraq was unrelated to Arab persecutions, but was really the work of "Israeli agents amongst other things throwing bombs in Baghdad Mosques."^[5][6] This is a widely spread claim and although debunked today, experts concur that activities of the Zionist underground in Iraq played a role in encouraging Jews to leave the country [1]. In the book Guillou further described Israel as "racist" and a "European warrior state".^[7] In [1977] he declared in an interview with the Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet: "I am optimistic, I believe Israel will cease to exist before Armageddon."

Guillou has been accused of anti-semitism and is on record as having complained that the Jewish family of Bonnier is slanting the media towards a pro-Israeli stance.

Guillou has also been accused of anti-Americanism. For instance, during a TV-debate immediately following the 9/11 terror attacks he demonstratively refused to participate in three minutes of silence observed throughout Europe to honour the victims of the attacks in New York and Washington, reasoning that "The United States is the great mass murderer of our time." and the terror attacks were not an attack against us all, but only an attack on U. S. imperialism.^[8]

He harshly labeled the media's reaction to the 2006 transatlantic aircraft plot, and the necessity of creating the airport havoc, considering that the suspects had been caught. He argued that the media was driven by sensationalist profit and the British government by a will to give an impression of success in the War on Terror. He also pointed out that no explosives had been found and implied that the Muslim community was being victimized.^[9]

In 1976 Guillou released the controversial book Iraq – the new Arabia,^[10] which he had written in collaboration with his common-law wife Marina Stagh. The book presents Saddam Hussein as a model leader and Iraq under his rule in a near Utopian terms. Saddam is described as a progressive statesman, who values the welfare of his people, peace and democracy. Allegations that Iraq should be a "particular violent" is denied as “racist fantasies”. Abu Ghraib is described as a model prison, much better than Swedish prisons. A number pictures of smiling inmates from Abu Ghraib is include to press home that point. Some quotes from the book:

"[Before the year 2000 Iraq] will have surpassed European countries in standard of living."

"[With Saddam Hussein] the Baathis regime of Iraq is clearly very popular."

"[During the 70s] the country is to be democratized."

"[Iraq has] fewer restrictions on a free press [than most other countries] and is on a trajectory towards more freedom of press and not less."

"[When Iraq executed a number of Jews in 1969, and hanged them on the largest square of Baghdad] there were absolutely nothing that should indicate that the trial had been a show trial."

"There are historians that claim, almost certainly correctly, that Abraham was an Arab from the country that is today called Iraq and that he had no connection whatsoever with or belonged to the same people as Moses."

"[about Rashid Ali]Rashid Ali had lived in exile from 1941 [in Nazi-Germany] to October 1958, when he received Qassim's personal permission to return and on top of that a reception as a historical hero"

"This is a socialism of a kind that would not be distinct from, for instance Swedish or West German social democracy".

"[about violent children's programmes on TV]In part it was a constantly recurring irritation, in part it was a form of ideological schooling which hardly could be in line with the Baath-party's line."

• His daughter Ann-Linn Guillou has entered into registered partnership with Sandra Andersson, daughter of Swedish film director Roy Andersson.

• He is a self-described atheist.^[11]

1. ^ http://tv4.se/tvprogram/haxornastid/
2. ^ (Swedish) Guillou swindled on the Oscars. Aftonbladet (February 24, 2004). Retrieved on 2007-01-03..
3. ^ (Swedish) Zionism is Racism. Folket i Bild (1976). Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
4. ^ (Swedish) Thus is critique of the Israeli apartheid silenced. Aftonbladet (April 16, 2001). Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
5. ^ Book: Irak - det nya Arabien. Authors: Jan Guillou & Marina Stagh. City: Stockholm. Publisher: Norstedts. Year: 1977. ISBN 91-1-761371-X
6. ^ (Swedish) Jan Guillou anno 1977 – about Saddam Husseins democratization of Iraq. Screenshot from: Iraq – the new Arabia (2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-13.
7. ^ Book: Irak - det nya Arabien. Authors: Jan Guillou & Marina Stagh. City: Stockholm. Publisher: Norstedts. Year: 1977. ISBN 91-1-761371-X. P. 52 "[...]denna europeiska krigarstat Israel"
8. ^ (Swedish) Jan Guillou: We were forcibly Americanised. Aftonbladet (September 17, 2001). Retrieved on 2006-08-02.
9. ^ Jan Guillou: Never believe anything about what is written on al-Qaida. Aftonbladet (August 20, 2006). Retrieved on 2006-08-20.
10. ^ Book: Irak - det nya Arabien. Authors: Jan Guillou & Marina Stagh. City: Stockholm. Publisher: Norstedts. Year: 1977. ISBN 91-1-761371-X
11. ^ (Swedish) "Det ska mycket till för att reta upp mig". Expressen (2006-12-03). Retrieved on 2007-01-20.