The Iranian regime has often borrowed heavily from the Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels’ playbook, using propaganda and the tactics of demonization to traduce the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) – the main democratic opposition movement to the mullahs’ tyranny. However, it is sad when such tactics are mirrored almost word-for-word in the lazy, poorly researched, and absurdly distorted article in Le Canard Enchaîné, which relies on worn-out smears pumped out by Iran’s sinister Ministry of Intelligence (MOIS).
I have to ask the question: why now? Is it simply a happy coincidence that two French hostages have just been released by the Iranian authorities, who have weaponized hostage-taking to put pressure on Western appeasers? Could the egregious media coverage in France be part of the agreed ransom?
There seems to be a pattern emerging in the past two years. On two other occasions, French hostages were released, simultaneously with similar efforts to discredit Iran's main democratic opposition to placate Tehran. While the release of any hostages is good news, submitting to the demands of a brutal dictatorship violates our values and has proved to be counterproductive in the long term. However, the regime's obsessions with the MEK demonstrate its fear of the organization.
Had Le Canard Enchaîné one more investigation, or not entirely relied on what it has been fed, they would have found that smear stories targeting the PMOI/MEK as a dangerous Islamo-Marxist cult have been repudiated repeatedly by eminent Western politicians, diplomats, and academics. It is disappointing that such baseless smears are mindlessly echoed in their article. After working closely with Mrs Maryam Rajavi the PMOI/MEK, and the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) for more than two decades, I am accustomed to this sort of egregious disinformation.
Sadly, the demonization machinery is still at work and aids and abets the policy of appeasement of this evil, theocratic regime. The mullahs have infiltrated their agents into the very heart of our Western democracies. They go to great lengths and devote millions of dollars to infiltrate parliaments, spread disinformation, and attempt to discredit the only viable Iranian democratic alternative because of their utter fear of the PMOI/MEK and the NCRI and their realization that they lead the struggle for freedom in Iran. And it seems as if their propaganda campaign is designed not to fool the Iranian people but to fool Western decision-makers and Western media.
Le Canard Enchaîné must surely know that the Iranian regime has spread war and terror across the Middle East and worldwide. The mullahs suppress their own people and threaten the world with an aggressive policy of nuclear expansionism. Le Canard Enchaîné’s article, deceitfully traducing the reputation of Mrs Rajavi, one of the bravest and most dedicated women I have ever met, has simply encouraged and emboldened the regime and indeed has already been reported verbatim in their state-run organs.
It is a sad day when a magazine such as Le Canard Enchaîné joins the ranks of the appeasers. Perhaps they would remember Voltaire’s statement: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.”
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