Richard Horowitz & AssociatesAttorneys at Law

450 Seventh Avenue, 9th

FloorNew York, NY 10123

rhorowitz@rhesq.com

Telephone: (212) 829-8196

Facsimile: (212) 813-3214 www.rhesq.com

www.InternationalSecurityResources.com 

Admitted in New York and the District of Columbia

November 3, 2011

Kataryna Lyson, Esq.

Assistant General CounselBroadcasting Board of Governors

330 Independence Ave., S.W.

Washington, D.C. 20237

Dear Ms. Lyson,

I am in receipt of your letter to me dated October 28, 2011.

The two points in your letter, that my clients were contractors and not employees, and that Mr.

Fakhravar has no relationship with BBG and you are therefore unable to comment, are not responsive to

the concerns in my prior two letters.

I trust you recognize it is of no consequence if the VOA terminated the employment of an

employee or did not renew the contract of a contractor if the VOA did so for improper reasons. It strains

the imagination that Mr. Batebi completed his “contract-for assignment” as you wrote at 10:47 P.M. on

Saturday, October 8, the time and date when he received an e-mail notice from VOA’s Persian News

Network, effective October 9.

Your assertion that you cannot comment on Mr. Fakhravar because he has no relationship with

the BBG is unresponsive because I did not ask you to comment on Mr. Fakhravar but rather brought to

your attention facts that relevant to legal matter at hand, for which the BBG is responsible.

As the court said in Melodi Navab-Safavi, v. Glassman, et. al., 637 F.3d 311, (App. D.C. 2011):

The BBG is a federal agency charged with overseeing all U.S. government and

government-sponsored, non-military, international broadcasting services. The BBG

oversees Voice of America (“VOA”), which in turn oversees the Persian News Network 

(“PNN”), formerly called the Persian Service.

And, if as you wrote, you are responding “on behalf of the management of the Voice of America”

it is similarly of no consequence that Mr. Fakhravar “has no relationship with the BBG.”

We seek an explanation as to why the VOA terminated my clients’ working relationship. As I

have written, Mr. Fakhravar publicly stated that Mr. Batebi is under FBI investigation (see my October 19

letter, page 1), published that the VOA would terminate my clients before they were notified of this

decision, and was seen having dinner with Mr. Asgard the night of Mr. Sehhati’s last day with the VOA.

He similarly published that the VOA would terminate the employment of Rudi Bakhtiar which has indeed

recently happened (see my letter dated October 12, page 2). We are also aware that the VOA has hired

several new people, including Mahtab Farid, an associate of Mr Fakhravar. See the attached page from

Ms. Farid’s blog were she refers to herself as a “VOA PNN correspondent” on October 9, the date you

claim Mr. Batebi “completed” his “contract-for assignment. We have additional information which leads

us to believe that Mr. Fakhravar played some role in this matter as well.

 

 

Kataryna Lyson, Esq.

November 3, 2011

Page Two

I have provided the BBG with ample evidence to indicate that an inquiry into the VOA’s decisionand Mr. Fakhravar’s influence is warranted. I submit that it behooves you to provide an appropriate

response.

My clients are dismayed by the behavior of an agency of a government that granted them political

asylum. Please note that we are aware that Mr. Fakhravar has brought this matter to the attention of 

several members of Congress.

Sincerely,

S/Richard Horowitz

cc: Patricia Hargrave, Esq.

David Ensor

Steven Redisch

Ramin Asgard

Ahmad Batebi

Kourosh Sehhati