Turkmeniscam

"A hilarious book about two of the most absurd and corrupt mini-societies on earth—the Stalinist regime of Turkmenistan and the community of political lobbyists in Washington, D.C. If there were more journalists like Ken Silverstein actually doing their jobs and taking risks to infiltrate the ranks of America's bribe-giving class, there would be a lot less brazen criminality in our nation's capital. An excellent and very funny undercover broadside against a bunch of people who really, really deserve a very unpleasant surprise." —Matt Taibbi, author of The Great Derangement

"No reporter is better than Ken Silverstein at exposing the K Street-to-Capitol Hill axis of influence and greed. He led the way in revealing how lobbyists get pols to stuff earmarks into spending bills. Now he reveals their eagerness to shill for a brutally repressive dictatorship. This is muckraker reporting at its best: gutsy, tough-minded, and smart. Read this book and you'll understand a sickness at the heart of American democracy. You'll also understand why government service in Washington is frequently just finishing school for soulless, subversive commerce on K Street." —Jerry Kammer, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and co-author of The Wrong Stuff

"Beltway sleazeballs beware: Muckraking is back in town—what Upton Sinclair did for rotten meat, Ken Silverstein's done for modern lobbying." —Jack Hitt, Peabody Award-winning journalist and author.

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 enlight- ening, jaw-dropping exploration of the dark side, the real question is: Who wouldn't?