Washington's Magic Christians | Global Investment Watch

The Magic Christian was a 1969 movie starring Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr. Sir Guy Grand (played by Sellers) adopts a homeless bum named Youngman (played by Starr) to be heir to his obscene wealth, and introduces him into the intricacies of the family business, which is to prey upon people’s greed by use of his vast wealth. One of the more notable scenes involved corporate executives diving into a large vat of sewage mixed with 100-dollar bills; this was Guy Grand’s proof that white-collar types would do anything for money.

Forty years later, Ken Silverstein shows that time has not changed this fundamental human flaw. Turkmeniscam: How Washington Lobbyists Fought to Flack for a Stalinist Dictatorship, is his recently released book in which he explores this “only in Washington” phenomenon, proving that art does in fact imitate life but rather badly. The movie was a cynical but funny bit of fiction. Silverstein’s account is a real-life tragedy where ethically challenged Washington insiders profit from tyrants, murders, kleptocrats and scoundrels of other varieties.

The story laid out in Turkmeniscam is about how leading lobbying firms trip over themselves to secure
the business of representing the totalitarian regime in Turkmenistan. In the muckraking tradition - now practically a dead art in American journalism - Silverstein poses as a businessman of dubious qualification attempting to help the dictatorship in that central Asian country. By currying favor with Washington officialdom through a well-connected lobbying firm, he hopes to improve the image of Turkmenistan and make money for his “company.”

Early in the book, Silverstein makes the critical point upon which his story is based, to wit:

How is it that year in and year out, come Republican or Democratic administration, the world’s worst regimes win favor in Washington? In part, because they often have something highly desired by the United States that can be leveraged to their advantage, be it oil (e.g., Saudi Arabia), vast markets for trade and investment (China), or geostrategic importance (Egypt). But even the most inherently well-endowed regimes need help gambling the Washington system, and it is their great fortune that countless lobbyists are, for the right price, invariably willing to lend a hand.

Taking the reader through the labyrinth of political dealing, Silverstein puts on his pinstripe suit and goes to work. Nobody should expect that this book is a suspense novel; the outcome is obvious from the onset. What is revealed is a tragic tale of institutional corruption and duplicity in the press and the American political system. This was driven home by the high brow dealings and low brow criticism inflicted on Silverstein’s efforts at revealing the truth.

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

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