Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

I found the behind the scenes view of lobbying to be intriguing - the story was told very well and I was amazed at the lack of information lobbying corporations needed to move forward. However, I wish the author had at least recognized the fact that lobbying is a business - they get paid to tell and market a story - just like advertisers - in government. Hopefully another story can be done on domestic lobbying, especially in these fiscally austere times.