Strategic Ties, Robust Reporting and Roundtables

Dear Colleagues,

Your patience and perseverance are inspiring. Thanks to you we were able to restructure in 2024 and save the American taxpayer $20 million. “Leaner ops, greater impact — always with purpose.” That’s the MBN mantra.

We’re raising our game with an important addition next week. That’s Scott Riddick, our new security chief, a former secret service agent and military police captain with deep international experience in facility security and staff protection.

We continue to seek opportunities for strategic cooperation. There are more monies to be saved, efficiencies to be achieved. VOA Director Mike Abramowitz, RFA President Bay Fang, and Open Technology Fund (OTF) president Laura Cunningham (together with her colleague Victoria Benner) paid visits to MBN headquarters in the fall.

We had a useful visit at RFE/RL headquarters in Prague in November. Leila Bazzi, Billy Sabatini, and Deirdre Kline from our executive team joined me. Seeds of cooperation on Iran and Russia have been planted.

Iran

With the collapse of the Assad regime, both Russia and Iran lost a key ally. Today, though, there are indications that Iran’s theocratic regime is already working to deepen sectarian divisions in the new Syria.

On New Years Eve, the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) called for a counter-revolution against the interim government in Syria. That same day, Iranian Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Akbar Ahmadia told the Omani foreign minister that “a new resistance has been born [in Syria] that will manifest itself in the coming years.”

Our work on Iran across the Middle East and North Africa keeps getting stronger. From Erbil, Delshad Hussein filed a recent report — buttressed by work of the Boroumand Foundation— on Iranian assassinations and kidnappings in Iraq and Iraqi Kurdistan. Since 1979, the regime has murdered an estimated 452 dissidents beyond Iranian borders.

I’ve invited Ladan Boroumand of the Boroumand Foundation to join us for a discussion. Ladan’s father, lawyer and democracy activist Abdorrahman Boroumand, was assassinated by the Islamic Republic, stabbed to death by Iranian agents in the lobby of his Paris apartment building in April 1991.

Suzanne Maloney of the Brookings Institution has an interesting essay in the current Foreign Affairs on the new, dangerous, and delicate balance between Israel and Iran. Our Yehya Kaseem interviewed recently former Mossad chief Ephraim Halevy, former National Security Council head Meir Ben Shabbat, and IDF spokesperson Avichay Adraee.

Last Wednesday, Israel confirmed that its commandos raided an Iranian missile production site in Syria in September. Special forces rappelled from helicopters, killed guards at an entrance to a scientific center in Masyaf, raided an underground site, set explosives, and escaped with documents.

Our colleague Gina Ofciehe reported on the commercial flight from Iran to Lebanon searched upon arrival on Thursday at the Rafik Hariri International Airport. Lebanese authorities had received intelligence of an Iranian plan to smuggle cash to its proxy Hezbollah.

Iran, Russia, and China 

We’ll keep digging deeper.  We’ll also expand the scope of our work on Iran, Russia, and China. Each country advances an agenda in deep conflict with the development of democracy, human rights, and the rule of law. Iran in particular poses a threat to peace and security.

We’ll be setting up Iran, China, and Russia desks in our newsroom. Andres Ilves will help develop the initiative. Please join me in welcoming Andres to MBN next week. Andres is a first-rate Iran expert and media executive who, among other accomplishments, has led BBC Persian in London and RFE Persian from Prague. He’ll report directly to me and work closely with our acting editor-in-chief Leila Bazzi.

On Russia, we’ll have assistance starting next week from Alina Niamtsu. Alina hails from Ukraine. She’s a gifted graduate student at Georgetown University and will work with us part-time through May.  Alina worked as a researcher in the fall at the DC-based Middle East Institute where she focused on Russia — China and Iran.

I’ll have more to report on China soon. Our investigative team led by Hussein Elrazzaz has been out ahead, working for some time now on Chinese cyber espionage in our region, for example. We can do more.

Min Mitchell who leads the Global News Service (GNS) came out to Springfield in the fall. She’s a wonderful ally. Min’s colleagues at GNS distribute fact-based, uncensored news in Mandarin and English to counter malign information manipulation.

Last Monday, officials in Washington announced that actors affiliated with the Chinese government had targeted the U.S. Treasury Department. Last October, there was news that Beijing had hacked the two major U.S. presidential campaigns. Before that in September there were reports of hacks attributed to the Peoples Republic of China involving at least nine American telecommunications firms, including AT&T and Verizon.

January 6, Trump Transition, Jimmy Carter  

• Mysteries remain unsolved, political disputes unsettled. Last Thursday, the FBI released new details about the individual who planted pipe bombs in Washington, D.C. the night before the January 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol four years ago. Last Thursday, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that House Republicans will investigate the disbanded House select committee that investigated the January 6, 2021 attack.
• Tomorrow, Ilan Berman will be with us again in Springfield. Ilan now leads the new administration’s transition team at USAGM. He’s particularly interested in our work on Iran, Russia, and China. Here’s Ilan’s recent piece in Newsweek on what the next Syria is likely to mean for American interests and Middle East security.
• Tomorrow, MBN senior advisor Matt Kaminski will be back with us in Springfield. Insights from Matt’s fall travel to Warsaw and Berlin, Tokyo and Seoul, Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, and Dubai continue to prove exceptionally useful. Here’s Matt’s recent Politico column on how the UAE is leveraging tech and AI to diversify its economy.
• On Thursday, Jimmy Carter’s funeral will take place at Washington National Cathedral. The Camp David Accords, signed by President Carter, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin in September 1978, established a framework for the peace treaty concluded between Israel and Egypt in March 1979. Joshua Muravchik was with us for a discussion recently. Here’s Josh’s book titled The Uncertain Crusade: Jimmy Carter and the Dilemmas of Human Rights Policy.

MBN at DC’s National Press Club

On Thursday, I’ll moderate a lunch discussion at the National Press Club on public diplomacy, U.S. international media, and American efforts to counter disinformation. Included in the roundtable will be leading experts from the State Department, Capitol Hill, and top Washington think tanks. We’ll give well deserved attention to MBN’s important work.

On January 23, we’ll host John Sullivan, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and Ambassador to Russia, at the National Press Club. I’ve asked John to speak about his recent book, a memoir on Russia’s war against the West.

****

Keep emailing me at jgedmin@mbn-news.com or click on this form to submit comments, questions, and concerns anonymously. I always benefit from your questions and suggestions. We’ll keep doing whatever we can to support you and your remarkable work. Know that Billy Sabatini, Deirdre Kline, and general counsel Anne Noble are always available as well.

My best, my gratitude — and again, Happy New Year, Jeff