Ah, Vichy. The name alone evokes delicate pastries, bubbling springs, and now—luxurious espionage fantasies apparently inspired by an overheated Netflix writer’s room. According to the latest splash from Le Canard Enchaîné (which roughly translates to “The Duck in Chains,” though one wonders what exactly it’s chained to these days), Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance, is guilty of the gravest political crime known to man: leading an independent Resistance… and when that’s not cruel enough… in exile.
Not content with the truth, Le Canard Enchaîné weaves a baseless narrative out of thin air—fabricating falsehoods without a shred of credible evidence. The goal isn’t to report facts but to smear reputations in service of Tehran’s propaganda. Even the most absurd lies are presented as ominous clues. Because in this game, belief isn’t the goal—doubt is. A moment’s hesitation, a seed of suspicion—that’s enough to do the damage. Truth doesn’t matter when you’re paid in fog.
This isn’t journalism—it’s fiction dressed as investigation, designed not to inform, but to confuse. And confusion, in the hands of propagandists, is just another form of control.
Instead of challenging the real danger—the regime that jails journalists, hangs protestors, and funds terrorism—they obsess over trivialities, hoping that innuendo will substitute for investigation. In doing so, they lend their ink not to truth, but to Tehran.
1. Je me réjouis de la libération d'#oliviergrondeau, retenu en otage en Iran depuis octobre 2022.
Cependant, la manière dont cette libération a été obtenue encourage le régime iranien à multiplier les prises d'otages.— Afchine Alavi (@afchine_alavi) March 20, 2025
Hostage Diplomacy: The Real Currency
But here’s the plot twist: while the Duck quacks about room service, real news has been quietly dripping through the cracks. In June 2024, just days after French media regurgitated Iranian regime propaganda, the French police stormed a peaceful community center tied to the Iranian Resistance. Why? Coincidentally, a French hostage had just been released by Tehran.
Fast forward to 2025: same act, new scene. Le Canard Enchaîné publishes a smear job, the mullahs applaud from Tehran, and conveniently, another French hostage walks free. The French call it diplomacy, the clerical regime calls it success and the Duck calls it journalism. But anyone with a memory longer than a TikTok reel calls it what it is: appeasement dressed up as policy.
In the 1980s, the Tehran-backed Hezbollah franchise kidnapped Westerners like party favors. They got France to expel the PMOI leadership in 1986. In 2003, over 160 Resistance members were arrested on fake terrorism charges—charges that dissolved after 12 years of judicial embarrassment. But hey, it bought the mullahs time. And hostages.
Now, in 2025, the price of betrayal seems to have dropped to a few headlines. The regime is so desperate, it can’t even haggle properly.
NCRI Statement: Lies Against #Iran’s Resistance Fuel Regime’s Repression, Hostage-Taking – Case to Go to European Courthttps://t.co/XYPwbft1BM
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) March 21, 2025
French Satire or Persian Propaganda?
Let’s be honest. Le Canard Enchaîné used to be a proud satirical paper. But somewhere between real journalism and regime-friendly stenography, the Duck found itself waddling into Iran’s propaganda pool. What used to challenge power now launders it—both literally and in headlines.
One of the most revealing lines in this whole charade is the accusation of a “forced telethon.” Really? A movement accused for decades of receiving support from foreign governments is now being attacked for relying on its own people? Make no mistake: this is not journalism—it’s an accidental confession that the Iranian Resistance is funded by its members and supporters, not any state.
And speaking of force—how exactly do you coerce people into a Resistance for 30, 40, even 50 years? Through exile, imprisonment, torture, and execution? These are volunteers who have stood against two brutal dictatorships, not conscripts on a payroll. To call their loyalty “forced” is not just insulting—it’s historically and morally bankrupt.
All this, of course, to smear the one movement the regime fears more than inflation: the PMOI/MEK. Tehran doesn’t fear B-52s, it fears telethons. Because every donation is a nail in the regime’s coffin, every rally a reminder that its days are numbered, and every false accusation another confession of weakness.
#Iranian Regime’s Judiciary Deputy Hails What He Calls #French Police Raid on @Mojahedineng Headquartershttps://t.co/uJyrY3iiEr
— NCRI-FAC (@iran_policy) June 14, 2024
The Day of Reckoning
To the people of Iran—from the streets of Zahedan to the hills of Kurdistan, from the striking workers of Ahvaz to the students risking everything in Tehran—know this: The regime is cracking. The fake news grows louder only when the truth gets closer.
And on that soon-to-come day, when the last mullah packs up his Swiss bank account and flees into irrelevance, the Iranian people will look back and see who stood with them—and who sold them out for a duck’s quack and a moment of silence from a terrorist state.
The Resistance remains. The truth remains. And the future belongs to those who never bowed to tyranny.