When high-profile American podcaster Candace Owens publicly alleged that a state-sanctioned French assassination plot (with at least one Israeli operative involved) was being planned, most would have written it off as a publicity stunt or paranoid rantings. Yet, for anyone who knows the shadowy history of multinational intelligence alliances, her claim shouldn't be dismissed so easily.
In 1976, the Safari Club, run from secret rooms in Cairo, staffed by French Foreign Legion veterans, Egyptian Sa'ka commandos, Israeli operatives, CIA operatives and other criminal actors, showed the world that states could collaborate beyond borders, laws, and scrutiny. Unproven as Owens' allegation may seem, the historical record of such clandestine activities makes this story not merely imaginable, but very possible. And that is why
Owens' accusation, as wild as it may seem, lands squarely on covert terrain shaped by decades of clandestine activities conducted by a consortium capable of operating across borders and beyond oversight. To understand why her recent claim didn't dissipate on impact, one has to understand the secret architecture of parallel intelligence constructs such as the Safari Club and the long shadow it still casts.
When Candace Owens claimed on
X that a "high‑ranking French government insider" warned her of an imminent plot to have her assassinated, alleging that President Emmanuel Macron and his wife Brigitte had "authorized and financed" the operation, assigning it to a small National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (
GIGN) team that included an Israeli operative. She also suggested that "Charlie Kirk's assassin trained with the
French Legion 13th brigade with multi-state involvement". The claim sounded like it belonged to the realm of conspiracy thrillers, and yet, as the allegation ricocheted across social media, something unusual happened: people did not instinctively laugh it off. Some dismissed it, yes. But many hesitated, paused, or quietly admitted that, given the right circumstances, given the right network of covert actors, such a plot didn't feel entirely impossible.
Comment: Some common sense coming from Belgium recently. They also stand to lose big time, if those assets were seized.
See also: The bad boy of Europe: Why Belgium is holding up Brussels' brainchild of lending Russia's sovereign assets to Ukraine