The

The Welcome to Media Roots Radio. This is Abby Martin. For those that have been paying attention to the Warhawks in D.C., you know about the foreign policy

initiative, an elitist neocon think tank that rose out of the ashes of the infamous project

for a New American Century, or PNAC. When I was placed in the crosshairs of warmongers last year

during the Ukraine incursion, I was propelled into a dark world of policy groups that

shape foreign policy, it are completely removed from the electoral process. But journalists like Ken

Silverstein have been writing about this trend for years. In 2007, Silverstein conducted a

groundbreaking investigation about obscure lobbying firms in D.C.

And their role in improving the image of dictatorial regimes in his book, Turkmenescam.

And ever since, he's been exposing the corruption of the establishment journalists who hype up the new Cold War and sensationalize the war on terror.

Recently, he's been in the news for leaving his job as a writer for The Intercept.

With tensions between the U.S. and Russia escalating every day,

I wanted to get his insight on the propaganda wars in the current climate.

Ken Silverstein, thank you so much for joining me. Let's talk about your

2007 really quickly, your undercover investigation to expose these shady investment deals in

Turkmenistan. Just really interesting, because I just found out about that reading your bio.

What was the craziest takeaway from that experience? There were a lot of crazy takeaways.

But I think something that I had realized before,

but that became clearer in a different way,

was that the everyday corruption of Washington

is people just, they don't even think about the bad things that they do.

The lobbyist I met with were not only willing to work for one of the worst regimes on earth.

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