Lake, Ragnar — and the next MBN

Dear Colleagues,

MBN’s summer program for early career professionals begins soon. This will be an after-hours program (no taxpayer expense). I’ll share details at a town hall meeting on Wednesday morning at 11 am.

On Wednesday, we’ll speak about the ongoing battle to receive our Congressionally approved funding for the remainder of the fiscal year. Court order eventually pried loose April and May funds from USAGM. But the fight continues. It’s dismaying, USAGM’s waste of time and taxpayer money in a slow roll process that began in mid-March with Kari Lake’s unlawful termination of our grant agreement. MBN’s June funding is now urgently needed.

Kari Lake’s Ragnar Group Hire

I’ll brief you on Wednesday on the work of Robert Wasinger’s Ragnar Group. Ragnar is the firm Ms. Lake hired in April for a non-compete deal worth $250,000. While the precise remit is unclear, public utterances by Ms. Lake suggest that a search is afoot for waste, fraud, and abuse at MBN, RFA, and RFE/RL.

We’d like to be helpful. We appreciate oversight and accountability. My request for a meeting with Mr. Wasinger and his colleagues has gone unacknowledged.

The Ragnar Group’s website says the firm provides consulting on legislative and executive branch strategy, legal support and business development — specializing in sports and entertainment, healthcare, housing, energy, environment, transportation, tribal affairs, government contracting, and agriculture. Mr. Wasinger’s ties to USAGM go back to contentious times in 2020 when Michael Pack served as USAGM CEO.

June Funding — and USAGM Reshuffle?

Due on the first of the month, there’s no word about MBN’s June disbursement. We need this money to operate and plan — and to take care of former employees, along with the mountain of bills caused by USAGM’s unlawful withholding of Congressionally appropriated funds. Extracting basic information from our parent agency can be a full time job. We cannot be certain when — or whether — June funds will arrive. It’s by now the mantra from Ms. Lake’s staff: “We’ll keep you posted.”

We’ll keep you informed. There’s now speculation about new personnel changes at our parent agency. USAGM’s general counsel resigned recently. Ms. Lake’s associate Mora Namdar left USAGM recently for the State Department. Ms. Lake herself was detailed to State in April. Last week, Ms. Lake signed an official letter to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee as “senior adviser to the chief operating officer.” Previously, she was “senior adviser to the acting USAGM CEO.” Up until now, USAGM hasn’t had a COO. We’ll try to learn more this week.

During the Cold War, Kremlinologists were Russia scholars turned forensic experts studying arcane details — including who from the Politburo stood next to whom on risers at Soviet military parades — in order to interpret clues and decipher power shifts.

As best we can tell, Ms. Lake continues to co-lead USAGM with Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. We’ll see whether Mr. Musk’s departure from government affects the DOGE role.

Allies, Open Books (and Opaque Ops)

We’ll continue to work closely with colleagues at grantee networks RFA and RFE/RL. We engage Capitol Hill. We’re adding allies to our network every week.

General Counsel Anne Noble and I had a good call with the Office of the Inspector General last week. I’m grateful to Anne for the initiative. We’re eager to share as much information as possible with all stakeholders about MBN’s progress and challenges.

On Friday May 30, USAGM security informed grantee representatives in a Teams call that security clearances for MBN, RFA, and RFE/RL executives were being “deactivated” — or “restricted,” it was said in the same conversation — effective that same day. We requested an explanation in writing. No sign of anything yet. Our follow-up on Friday (June 6) prompted an out-of-office email in reply.

Our board remains a critical source of counsel and support. We met on Friday. Board chair Ryan Crocker convenes regular meetings with fellow board chairs. You can find the list of MBN’s board members here. MBN is a 501(c)(3) grantee of the federal government.

Billions of dollars are spent each year by American adversaries in media and information programming around the world. We’re not asking for billions to counter poisonous anti-American narratives. We had anticipated a serious conversation about reform and restructure. The destruction of American soft power by the Lake-DOGE duo baffles us to this day.

MBN Mission, Content, and Editorial Strategy

We’re pushing ahead. Congress expects this. The American taxpayer deserves our hard and serious work. Middle East Broadcasting Networks is poised to lean into technological change and immense new regional opportunities. The Middle East is transforming itself. And so must the conversation.

Our mission is to bring exclusive insight from Washington to Arab audiences, and authentic voices of the region to the heart of U.S. policymaking. We do so by producing real journalism — compelling and credible. We build trust with our audiences as our work adapts and evolves, centering now around five main pillars:

The Pulse of Washington. With our unparalleled access within the Capital Beltway, we serve as America’s voice in the Middle East. We tell stories other Arabic-language news outlets cannot about U.S. policymaking and beyond; regional audiences deserve the chance to understand the American story. We give Arab publics the vital context others leave out.

Tech and Innovation. Bold ideas, breakthrough technologies, and rising innovators are transforming our media landscape — and the Arab world. Through our coverage, we help spotlight the fast movers in this dynamic environment, from Saudi Arabia’s sweeping “Vision 2030” plan to Israel’s groundbreaking work on missile defense. We cover change. We lean into new tech opportunities for MBN.

Society, Religion, and Culture. Truly understanding a region begins with its people, their traditions, their struggles, and their values. At MBN, we go beyond the headlines to tell the deeper stories about issues of family, faith and education—factors that shape Arab societies. We also understand that extremism and terrorism pose threats that are not only local or regional in nature.

Iranian Influence. The Islamic Republic remains the greatest threat to regional stability in today’s Middle East, and understanding what makes Tehran tick is essential. Our coverage of Iran’s ideology, its nuclear work, its vast network of radical proxies, and its regional ambitions helps alert Arabic audiences to the Iranian regime’s destabilizing impact on politics and society. Iran fights the U.S., including through bigger budgets for media and information operations across the region.

Chinese Ambition. Beijing continues to expand its diplomatic and commercial influence across the Middle East. It invests considerable amounts in public diplomacy and state-directed media operations. The Chinese Communist Party’s designs are strategic, long-term, and inimical to American interests. MBN is the region’s only outlet that digs into the story of Chinese methods, intentions, and influence. It’s a story that must be told — with intelligence, credibility, and journalistic responsibility.

We’re working on a strategy document, operational plan, and budget to share soon with the MBN board. Congress must have the very best version of MBN for 2026. This, while we keep fighting for the restoration of our Congressionally approved 2025 funding. 

MBN reaches tens of millions at the cost of a couple Apache helicopters. It simply cannot be that political operatives working in the shadows are permitted to mindlessly cancel America’s voice abroad. U.S. retreat and capitulation would be strategic malpractice of the highest order.

Sincerely, Jeff