Pascale Combelles Siegel
Pascale Combelles Siegel is a Virginia-based independent defense consultant specializing in perception management.
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Articles by Pascale Combelles Siegel
Branding al-Qaeda in Mali – France’s Self-Declared Jihadist Gilles le Guen
Self-declared jihadist Gilles le Guen (a.k.a. Abdel Jelil) was arrested on April 28 by French forces in Timbuktu, questioned and handed over to Malian authorities. He was extradited back to...
The Toulouse Gunman: A Portrait of French Islamist Muhammad Merah
Muhammad Merah, a 23-year-old Frenchman of Muslim faith, killed seven innocent victims and severely wounded another one in March 2012. The murder spree shocked France. The perpetrator left them bewildered....
France and the Prospects for Military Intervention in Mali
France has watched warily as Mali has descended into chaos after the March 22 coup d’état overthrew Amadou Toumani Touré’s government and the Islamist rebellion took control of northern Mali....
To Pay or Not to Pay? The French Hostage Dilemma
After 18 months in captivity, the Taliban released Hervé Ghesquière and Stéphane Taponier on June 29. The two journalists from the French public television channel France Télévision were taken hostage...
Militant Iraqi Nationalists Struggle with Approach to al-Qaeda’s Islamic State of Iraq
The string of deadly bombings against government buildings and Shiite landmarks in Baghdad that began last August provides a startling reminder that the Qaeda-associated Islamic State of Iraq (ISI) remains...
The Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb Threaten France over Hostility to Burkas
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Afghanistan’s Taliban strongly condemned French President Sarkozy’s declaration that the burka, a sign of “enslavement” and “debasement,” is “not welcome in the territory...
Mujahideen Leader Appeals to Scholars and Professionals to Defeat U.S. – Iranian Plot to Subjugate Iraq
On 20 April 2008, al-Furqan, the media production company of the Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), released an audio interview with Abu Hamza al-Muhajir (a.k.a. Abu Ayyub al-Masri), the Amir...
The Amir of the Islamic State in Iraq Lambastes President Obama’s Plan for Iraq
In his second speech of the year, the Amir of the al-Qaeda-allied Islamic State of Iraq (ISI), Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, has criticized President Obama’s Iraq plan as deceitful and announced...
Evidence of French Intelligence Agency Rejected in Appeal of Former Guantanamo Inmates
They were already free. Now, they are innocent. On February 24, the Appeals Court in Paris overturned the conviction of five French Muslims, all former Guantanamo detainees repatriated in 2004...
Coalition Attack Brings an End to the Career of al-Qaeda in Iraq’s Second-in-Command
The U.S. military scored one of its biggest tactical successes against al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) on October 5 by killing Abu Qaswarah, a man identified by both the U.S. military...
Iraq’s Baath Party Looks to a Final Showdown with the Baghdad Government
The Baathist Supreme Command for Jihad and Liberation (SCJL) has announced that it is preparing to launch the “Battle of Baghdad.” The SCJL is a coalition of at least twenty-two...
Looking to the Levant: Internationalizing the Iraqi Insurgency
A number of Iraqi insurgents are increasingly turning their guns outward—rhetorically at least—toward the Levant (Jordan, Gaza, the West Bank, Israel and Lebanon) in general and Israel in particular. It...
Mergers and Acquisitions within the Iraqi Insurgency
For the U.S. military, 2007 was the year of the surge in Iraq. The controversial troop increase—along with the rise of the Sunni Awakening councils and Moqtada al-Sadr’s truce—has combined...
Swedish Cartoonist Forced Underground by Salafi-Jihadi Campaign
Barely a year after Danish cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad as a sponsor of terrorism led to a worldwide controversy and violent anti-Western riots across the Middle East, a new...
An Inside Look at France’s Mosque Surveillance Program
France's counter-terrorism strategy is to disrupt terrorist networks before they are able to engage in violent action. Thus far, the strategy has worked since the last terrorist attack on French...
AQIM Renews its Threats Against France
In July, newly elected French President Nicolas Sarkozy visited Algiers to reaffirm France's "deep friendship" with the Maghreb and present his project of a "Mediterranean Union" designed to promote a...
Taliban Graduation Ceremony Demonstrates Change of Tactics
Earlier this month, a Pakistani journalist filmed a Taliban "graduation ceremony" for would-be Western suicide bombers. The video, which can be seen at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwwiGXIhnKo, shows a "graduating class of suicide...
French Authorities Dismantle Network of Fighters Bound for Iraq
In the early hours of February 14, the anti-terrorism directorate of the French national police arrested 11 French citizens, including four women, on suspicion that they were part of a...
Radical Islam and the French Muslim Prison Population
In the mid-1990s, after an unprecedented campaign of terrorist attacks in Paris, the French government dismantled several Algerian GIA-backed terrorist cells and sentenced both operatives and financiers of the attacks...