Richard Horowitz & Associates Attorneys at Law

450 Seventh Avenue, 9th Floor New 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

October 19, 2011 Patricia Hargrave, Esq. Associate General Counsel Broadcasting Board of Governors 330 Independence Ave., S.W. Washington, D.C. 20237 Dear Ms. Hargrave, Pursuant to my letter to you dated October 12, 2011, I wish to bring the following to your attention for the purpose of VOA’s investigating my clients’ termination with the objective of having them reinstated.

First, even though Mr. Batebi received his notice of termination on Saturday night, October 8 at 10:47 PM, that Sunday morning, October 9, the Iranian government news site Kayhen News published that the VOA terminated Mr. Batebi and Mr. Sehhati’s employment “several days ago.” In other words, Kayhen News knew about Mr. Batebi’s termination before he did. As this site also published Mr. Katzman’s letter which was at the time publicly available only through Mr. Fakhravar’s postings, and, Mr. Fakhravar also published that my clients will be terminated, it stands to reason that Mr. Fakhravar supplied Kayhen News with the information about my clients’ terminations, or at the very least, the two have similar interests and therefore publish the similar material about my clients. (www.kayhannews.ir/900717/2.htm#other211).

Second, the intensity of Mr. Fakhravar’s public campaign against Mr. Batebi should raise further concern about his motives and connection to Mr. Asgard and to Mr. Asgard’s decision to terminate my clients’ employment.

See item 6 from Mr. Fakhravar’s prepared statement for a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing held on April 6, 2011 (http://foreignaffairs.house.gov/112/fak040611.pdf):

Ahmad Batebi, was hired at VOA/PNN with a false resume. This person was given a special cell phone by the Islamic Republic’s Intelligence service so he could provide critical information to them and receive direction from them. Please contact me if VOA believes anything in Mr. Batebi’s resume is false. Regarding Mr.

Fakhravar’s claim that Iranian intelligence gave Mr. Batebi a cell phone, something prohibited to prisoners; Mr. Batebi and three other prisoners from his cell are witness to Mr. Fakhravar having a cell phone while at Evin prison. Mr. Batebi is in contact with these three witnesses, one a practicing lawyer, who are all in Iran and out of prison. They will testify that while in prison they confronted Mr. Fakhravar who denied having a cell phone, though they found one on his person.

Further, see the January 19, 2011 presentation Mr. Fakhravar gave at the Heritage Foundation, starting at 49:00 (http://www.heritage.org/Events/2011/01/Internet-Freedom). Mr. Fakhravar’s assertion that Iran’s Supreme Leader allowed Mr. Batebi to leave Iran is false. See Mr. Batebi’s 60 Minutes interview from April 5, 2009: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/04/03/60minutes/main4917310.shtml, which shows Mr. Batebi’s cell phone video of his being smuggled out of Iran to Iraq.

Patricia Hargrave, Esq. October 19, 2011 Page Two

There is also no truth to Mr. Fakhravar’s assertion that Mr. Batebi was routinely released from Evin prison.

At his Heritage Foundation presentation Mr. Fakhravar also asserted that Mr. Batebi is under investigation by the FBI for being an Iranian agent, as he published on Balatarin on October 3 (see my October 12 letter, page 2). We are aware however that one of Mr. Fakhravar’s associates threatened to file such a complaint with the FBI. We do not know if this complaint was filed but this is the apparent source of Mr. Fakhravar’s harmful allegation against my client.

Regarding Arjang Davoodi’s statement and letter; it is impossible for us to contact him for clarification as he is in prison. Mr. Davoodi’s reliability and motives however are in question; he somehow filmed himself with a cell phone criticizing the Iranian regime while in prison for political offenses against the regime, then published a letter saying Mr. Batebi is responsible for his imprisonment without explaining why.

That Mr. Fakhravar used Mr. Davoodi’s material against Mr. Batebi at his Heritage Foundation presentation, particularly in light of his other public attacks on Mr. Batebi, is adequate reason to investigate his connections with Mr. Asgard and the reason for my clients’ termination. As I wrote in my October 12 letter, Mr. Fakhravar is on a campaign to discredit other former Iranian political prisoners and as Mr. Batebi is the best known and respected former prisoner, not simply because of his 1999 picture on the cover of The Economist but also because of the honorable way in which he has handled his affairs over the years, he is Mr. Fakhravar’s prime target.

Third, Mr Fakhravar’s claims about his organization are exaggerated. Our understanding from people who used to work for him is that his claim that his Confederation of Iranian Students has 8,000 members is based on the number of clicks the “Like” button on the organization’s Facebook page received. As of about two weeks ago Mr. Fakhravar’s Iranian Freedom Institute no longer has a board of advisors; its members resigned or in one case did not know his name was listed and instructed Mr. Fakhravar to remove him from his website.

I submit there is adequate reason for VOA to investigate why the Persian section terminated my clients’ employment. As we maintain the terminations were for political reasons, influenced by someone outside of VOA and that my clients were highly qualified for their positions with no record of work-related problems or negative evaluations, I again urge VOA to fully investigate this matter and reinstate my clients’ employment.

Sincerely, S/Richard Horowitz

cc: David Ensor Steven Redisch Ramin Asgard Ahmad Batebi Kourosh Sehhati