Ken Silverstein

Turkmeniscam (eBook, ePUB)

How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship

• Format: ePub

Produktbeschreibung

As I have often said, I would represent the devil himself for the right priceit'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 Congressshaking 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 outand 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 Turkmenistanbranded one of the worst totalitarian systems in the worldinto 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

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Produktdetails

• Verlag: Random House Publishing Group
• Seitenzahl: 224
• Erscheinungstermin: 23. September 2008
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9781588367549
• Artikelnr.: 39272592

Autorenporträt

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.