Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship [Hardcover]

Ken Silverstein (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 23, 2008

“As I have often said, I would represent the devil himself for the right price–it’s not personal, just business.”
–a Washington, D.C., lobbyist

For nearly as long as there have been politicians in the United States, there have been lobbyists haunting the halls of Congress–shaking hands, bearing gifts, and brandishing agendas. Everyone knows how the back-scratching game of money, power, and PR is played. For a good enough offer, there are those who will gladly dive into the dirtiest political waters. The real question is: Just how low will they sink? Veteran investigative journalist Ken Silverstein made it his mission to find out–and “Turkmeniscam” was born.

On assignment for Harper’s magazine, and armed with a fistful of fake business cards, Silverstein went deep undercover as a corporate henchman with money to burn and a problem to solve: transforming the former Soviet-bloc nation Turkmenistan–branded “one of the worst totalitarian systems in the world”–into a Capitol Hill-friendly commodity. Even in the notoriously ethics-challenged world of Washington’s professional lobbying industry, could “Kenneth Case” (Silverstein’s fat-cat alter ego) find a team of D.C. spin doctors willing to whitewash the regime of a megalomaniac dictator with an unpronounceable name and an unspeakable reputation? Would the Beltway’s best and brightest image-mongers shill for a country condemned for its mind-boggling history of corruption, brutality, and civil rights abuse?

Who would dare tread in the ignoble footsteps of Ivy Lee, the pioneering PR guru who sought to make the Nazis look nice? And who would stoop to unprecedented new lows to conquer Congress and compromise the red, white, and blue for the sake of the almighty green? As Ken Silverstein discovers in this mordantly funny, disturbingly enlightening, jaw-dropping exploration of the dark side, the real question is: Who wouldn’t?


Praise for The Radioactive Boy Scout

“Alarming . . . The story fascinates from start to finish.”
–Outside

“An astounding story . . . [Silverstein] has a novelist’s eye for meaningful detail and a historian’s touch for context.”
–The San Diego Union-Tribune

“[Silverstein] does a fabulous job of letting David [Hahn’s] surrealistic story tell itself. . . . But what’s truly amazing is how far Hahn actually got in the construction of his crude nuclear reactor.”
–The Columbus Dispatch

“Enthralling . . . [The Radioactive Boy Scout] has the quirky pleasures of a Don DeLillo novel or an Errol Morris documentary. . . . An engaging portrait of a person whose life on America’s fringe also says something about mainstream America.”
–Minneapolis Star Tribune

“Amazing . . . unsettling . . . should come with a warning: Don’t buy [this book] for any obsessive kids in the family. It might give them ideas.”
–Rocky Mountain News

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Foreign despots with image problems typically hire D.C. spin doctors, so Harper’s editor Silverstein resolved to sting the shills to reveal how they put happy faces on tyrants. This humorous account of his subterfuge begins with Silverstein’s strategy: he would pose as a fictional broker of the energy resources of Turkmenistan, a country that, alas, labors beneath a reputation for human rights abuses, corruption, rigged elections, and cult-of-personality dictatorship. Understanding Turkmenistan’s need for a professional public relations whitewash, Kenneth Case of the Maldon Group shopped the problem to top-drawer lobbying firms, two of which scheduled presentations to snag the Turkmenistan account. Gussying up Turkmenistan would be a challenge, they advised Mr. Case—hence their steep monthly fee—but their firm’s stable of ex-members of Congress and ex-ambassadors, with their connections to the political class, promised to get the truth out about prosperous, democratic Turkmenistan. Evidence in hand of the lobbyists’ greed and political prostitution, Kenneth Case reverted to Ken Silverstein, author of this marvelous, rollicking exposé of K Street culture. --Gilbert Taylor

About the Author

Ken Silverstein is the author of The Radioactive Boy Scout. The Washington editor of Harper’s magazine, he is a former investigative reporter for the Washington, D.C., bureau of the Los Angeles Times. Silverstein has also written for Mother Jones, The Nation, and The American Prospect, among other publications. He lives in Washington.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Random House; 1 edition (September 23, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 140006743X
• ISBN-13: 978-1400067435
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #791,149 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written, informative, and depressing, January 8, 2009

By 

K G R "K G R" (Arlington, VA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship (Hardcover)

This book is based largely on what the author reported in Harper's, concerning his attempts to procure lobbyist/p.r. representation for the Stalinist government in Turkmenistan (through an obscure investment group). It will come as a surprise to absolutely no one remotely familiar with Washington that ANY individual, business, government, etc., no matter how egregious their conduct, could find lobbyists to represent them in Washington for the right price. What is unique, informative, and entertaining about the book is the author's use of undercover journalism to expose just how far lobbyists would stoop to represent an oppressive dictatorship, with all the relevant details. Indeed, firms literally were fighting to representing Turkemnistan.

The book is well-written, and at around 200 pages, is a quick read. The book, besides being informative about the world of lobbyists, is also an indictment of journalism. The author rightly discussed the death of undercover/investigative journalism in the mainstream, national print newsmedia. He also discussed the incestuous relationships between politicians, the media, and lobbyists/p.r. types. If you're interested in politics, lobbying, or journalism, this book is for you.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Politics is an unsavory sport, February 9, 2009

By 

Chris (Washington state, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship (Hardcover)

This is the best book on current events that I've read in a long time.

There are people in this country who want to believe that there are serious and major differences in principle between our two political parties. Well this book shows that both our parties do share a big principle and that is "money talks." John Murtha is a big example on the Democratic side. He is the champion earmarker of the House, loyally rewarding campaign donations with gifts of taxpayer money to the donator.

Moreover, political lobbying is a revolving door business. There is the case of the aide on Republican Bill Thomas's House Ways and Means Committee who helped shepherd through Bush's dramatic tax cuts on US corporations' overseas investments in 2004. This aide then went to work for a lobbying firm that represents many of the clients that benefited from that tax cut. Silverstein observes that the usual right wing dogma promised that such tax cuts would stimulate companies to expand production and hire new people. Silverstein notes that Business Week in August 2005 reported that six of the ten biggest beneficiaries of the tax cuts had engaged in substantial layoffs of workforce.

Then there are lobbyists who work for foreign dictatorships. One example is the lobbying firm of Patton/Boggs, the "Boggs" name designating Tommy Boggs, brother of Cokie Roberts. Tommy Boggs helped spearhead the effort of the death squad government in Guatemala to remove restrictions on US military aid to the country in the early 90's. More recently Patton-Boggs has done PR work for the dictator of Cameroon, Paul Biya. One of the most extreme examples that Silverstein cites of a lobbyist for a foreign government is Jack Abramoff. Abramoff set up an international relations think tank in 1983 that was mostly funded by money from apartheid South African intelligence. There are several references in this book to lobbyists who have worked for Burma, which is surprising since polishing the regime's image would seem to be a near impossible task, but some of our best and brightest have tried.

Then there are the tyrannies of the former Soviet republics in Central Asia. American and other world energy companies have been particularly eager to loot the resources of these countries. Silverstein observes how energy companies have financed think tanks that have sought to pretty up the dreadful autocracies governing Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan. In the case of Kazakhstan, Silverstein notes how in 1998 a business consultant named James Giffen got together a group of PR consultants including Marc Siegel, formerly of the Democratic National Committee and Michael Deaver, former deputy chief of staff under Reagan. Giffen worked for Kazakhstan president Nursaltan Nazarbayev and he wanted to polish up the regime's image. Nazarbayev, dictator since 1991, staged a presidential election in 1999 and then jailed his only viable opponent. He had recently been cracking down on the few independent media outlets existing in his country. Some of his political opponents had turned up dead in mysterious circumstances. Silverstein quotes from written proposals by the P-group( as Giffens's PR specialist assemblage was called) to improve Nazarbayev's image in the U.S. Oil companies were called in to help fund outreach work to Congress. The outreach to congress produced more support for increased American investment in Kazakhstan by Republicans and Democrats alike. Silverstein also notes how, in 1999, another lobbying firm, which was receiving funds from the Kazakhstan government, paid for several right wing journalists, including Georgie Ann Geyer and American Spectator editor Emmitt Tyrell, to travel to Kazakhstan. These journalists did not reveal that their travel to the country had been paid for by a lobbying firm under retainer by the Kazakhstan government.. They subsequently produced idiotically upbeat stories saying that while there might be problems in the country, it was pretty much progressing toward a vibrant and free society. Meanwhile James Giffen has been charged in New York state with funneling 78 billion dollars in bribes to Nazarbayev from fees paid to Giffen by energy companies who were granted concessions by the Kazakhstan govt.

But the centerpiece of this book is Silverstein's account of his undercover operation to try to see if prominent Washington lobbyists would agree to do PR work for the totalitarian kleptocracy that has governed Turkmenistan since 1991. The bizarre cult of personality if not the human rights abuses of the dictator Saparmurat Niyazov made him too embarrassing for many Western businesses to embrace. Niyazov paid Alexander Haig to do PR work for him in the early and mid 90's. Silverstein posed as an aid for an investor interested in doing business in Turkmenistan and gaining favor from the government there. Silverstein learned from lobbyists how (for the right price) the slight liberalization of Turkmenistan's society since Niyazov's death could be spun in the media and in congress by a PR/lobbying firm as real improvements in human rights. Energy companies could help organize think tank symposiums with panels friendly to Turkmenistan, stories favorable to Turkmenistan could be planted in newspapers, etc. Greg Hartley, a rising star in the lobbying industry and former aide to House Republican whip Roy Blunt, suggested to Silverstein that his firm could do for Turkmenistan what it did for one of its clients, the gangster regime ruling the oil rich African nation of Equatorial Guinea. Hartley claimed that his firm's PR strategies had succeeded to the point where Equatorial Guinea's dictator, Teodor Obiang, had dropped down to 11th on Parade Magazine's list of the world's worst dictators, from its 6th place finish the year before.

Silverstein ends the book with a pessimistic overview of the restrictions on lobbyist-politician interaction implemented after the Democrats captured congress in November 2006. And as is made clear in this book, the Democrats, the supposed party of the underdog, are hardly less than Republicans caught up in the unsavory causes that lobbyists champion.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Amusing and informative, January 2, 2009

By 

chitatel (Connecticut) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship (Hardcover)

This is a good and quick read, an expose of the casual way in which foreign governments can buy influence in Washington DC, and correspondingly the extent to which what passes for policy debate in DC is bought and paid for. However, the book does not substantially add to the material that the author already published in Harpers.