The January 2015 attacks came as something of a half-surprise to the intelligence services responsible for counter-terrorism. As Bernard Bajolet, then head of the General Directorate of External Security (DGSE), summed up: "It was a shock for us, but we had been expecting terrorist attacks in France for several months. Not least because of what was happening in Syria and Iraq, even if the attack on Charlie is not linked to the Syrian-Iraqi context." Indeed, the main surprise of the attack was the affiliation of its perpetrators, the Kouachi brothers. They revealed it during their escape in Paris's 19^th arrondissement when they seized a motorist's vehicle at gunpoint and shouted: "We're with al-Qaeda in Yemen."

"At the time, we didn't know about Peter Cherif's involvement," explained the former DGSE chief, referring to a member of the Buttes-Chaumont network, sentenced in October 2024 to life imprisonment for his membership of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and his role in the Charlie Hebdo attack. Bajolet would no doubt have remembered that he had crossed paths with him when he was ambassador to Iraq (2004 to 2006). Another macabre thread connects the senior official to the Charlie Hebdo attack. The bodyguard of cartoonist Charb, police officer Franck Brinsolaro, had been his security officer when Bajolet narrowly escaped an assassination attempt by the Taliban in eastern Kabul in June 2011. Brinsolaro was killed before he could defend himself.

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