Extraordinary Rendition Read Online Free PDF Page B

tell Ali that they have been well cared for.”
    “Ali isn’t asking that. He wants to know where they are, what their health is, what schools his children are in.”
    Khalid didn’t translate. There was silence in the room. The Imam spoke, and then Khalid said, “What has our brother told you?”
    Byron knew that he would confront this problem: he had explained to Ali, when Ali asked that he visit the Imam, that there was very little he could say to him about what Byron and Ali had discussed. Byron had tried to make Ali understand that there was an attorney-client privilege that made it impossible for Byron to tell anyone the words that he and Ali had exchanged. And Byron had explained that, if Ali gave him permission to tell his brother and the Imam what their conversations were, then the attorney-client privilege would be lost and Byron might be required to tell other people as well. He was certain that Ali, an intelligent man who had worked as an accountant, understood. But Ali simply said, “Please, just speak to my brother and the Imam. I want them to know that I’m here, I want them to tell you about my wife and kids, I want you to let them know that you are a life-giver, and that you were able to bring me the holy Koran .”
    Byron spoke slowly: “I can’t tell you everything we’ve talked about.”
    Again Khalid translated: “What has our brother said to you?”
    “I can tell you this: that he was in prisons in Europe, or so he thinks, for two years, and then for years in a hot place, probably Guantanamo, in Cuba; that he has been very badly treated; that he doesn’t know what he’s accused of. And that he now has a copy of the Koran .”
    The Imam spoke. Khalid translated: “What did he tell you about the Koran ?”
    “He said that it was life-giving water to read it again.”
    Khalid said, “My brother was always very devout.”
    “And he also wanted me to let the Imam know that he has read and understands at last the words of book nine.”
    “What words in book nine?”
    Byron removed from his pocket the yellow sheet of paper. He read aloud: “ Those who were left behind rejoiced at sitting still behind the messenger of Allah, and were averse to striving with their wealth and their lives in Allah’s way. And they said, Go not forth in the heat! Say: the heat of hell is more intense of heat, if they but understood. ”
    Suddenly the Imam, his voice sibilant and rapt, began reciting words in Arabic. It took almost a minute for him to finish. At the end, Khalid said, “The Imam asks that you let our brother know that the next lesson he must understand is in book eight, chapter six , the verses 55 through 62. Ali’s strength is in Allah, in the Glorious Koran .”
    Byron had read enough about the Koran to know that its title was properly translated as the Glorious Koran , not just the Koran . He wrote down the reference that the Imam had given him. Book, chapter, lines of verse. 8, 6, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62 . He knew also that almost every edition of the Koran , no matter who the translator was, had the same chapter, verse and line number so that readers could all find the same text, just as the Bible and Shakespeare’s plays had common chapter, verse, and line numbers.
    Then, somewhere outside the room, a bell sounded. Byron had seen a sign indicating that there were classes for children in the building, and the bell, although muffled, sounded like a school bell. There were no children in the building, no sound of children’s voices anywhere.
    Khalid stood. Byron did as well. The Imam remained seated. “The Sheik sends his blessings to our brother,” Khalid said.
    Three hours later, in his apartment, Byron turned to the passage of the Koran the Imam had mentioned. He had an old translation by a long-dead man who wrote in his preening introduction that he was Marmaduke Pickthall, the first Englishman who had himself become a Muslim to translate the holy text.
    Byron read aloud: Lo! The