Before the first American war against Saddam Hussein, when Dick Cheney was secretary of defence, he had to brief King Hassan of Morocco about the brewing Operation Desert Storm. As the meeting was about to start, the king placed a small silver box in his translator's hand and briefly spoke with him in Arabic. Mr Cheney asked what the ritual meant. The king replied that the box contained a fragment of the Koran and he was swearing his translator to secrecy on pain of death. Mr Cheney later recalled thinking: "Damn, I need one of those."
Sources
The Economist, Jul 28th 2007, p. 34
