Extraordinary Rendition

44

BYRON HAD INVITED TEN reporters to the press conference. Five were from television, and the rest were writers for newspapers, magazines, and online services. Every reporter he had invited came to the room he had rented at the wood-paneled Harvard Club on West 44th Street.

“Thank you all for coming.” He stood at the front of the room. To his left were fifteen copies of the report, each held together by a rubber band. “All of what I am about to say, and all that is in the report I’m about to give you, is on the record. And you will all be free to take with you what I call ‘the torture video’ attached to each report.”

There was one cameraman in the room. His CNN shield was suspended on a bright ribbon from his neck. On a prearranged signal from Byron, he started the camera. “The man I represent, Ali Hussein, was tortured by United States agents. He was hit time and time again. He was repeatedly forced under water. We have a video that demonstrates all this. It is part of each packet. No one has ever seen even a picture of waterboarding. And the United States has always denied that there was a photo, video, or tape.”

Byron stared for several seconds at the reporters. He was utterly calm. “What you will see is far worse than the photos of Abu Ghraib. Far worse than images of a human being near death, screaming and naked. And that isn’t all. My client was held in complete isolation for years. His only visitor was a brutal United States agent. My client knows him only as Jesse Ventura. When we speak of terrorists, we need to expand the definition. You’ll see the conduct of Jesse Ventura-whose real name is Andrew Hurd-and I submit that what you will see is terrorism. From a lawyer’s standpoint, it is attempted murder, plain and simple.”

A measured voice asked: “How do you know the agent’s name?”

“Simeon Black was working on a very detailed, deeply researched article on the arrests, detention, extraordinary rendition, and treatment of men arrested overseas in the war on terror. He learned that ‘Jesse Ventura’ was an agent named Andrew Hurd. And I’ve had encounters with Andrew Hurd.”

Another voice, this one a woman’s: “How did you get the video?”

“An agent who once worked with Hurd gave it to me.”

“What agent?”

“I knew her as Christina Rosario. That was not her name. I don’t know her name.”

“Where is she?”

“She is dead.”

“How did she die?”

“She drowned.”

“Where?”

“Off the coast of Maine.”

“Why did she give you the videotape?”

“She was assigned under cover to shadow me. She left the video in plain view, I believe, for me to take. I took it.”

The same woman’s persistent voice: “Why did she do it?”

He was surprised to hear himself say, “Conscience.”

“How is that?”

“She was disturbed at what the government had done. And disturbed as well that it had lied.”

“Who else has the video?”

“The people who filmed it, the United States Attorney’s Office, the judge. And Simeon Black had it.”

“Where did he get it?”

“From me. I gave it to him. When he was killed the day after I gave it to him, it was missing, stolen.”

“Do you know who killed him?”

“The people who wanted to gather up all copies of the video and all of the work and research he was producing.”

“Who are those people?”

“Ask Andrew Hurd. Ask Mr. Rana, the prosecutor.”

“Where do you stand in all of this?”

“I am only a lawyer advocating for his client. He cannot receive a fair trial. He is a victim, not a terrorist. He should be freed, and the people who did this to him should be prosecuted.”

With the camera still trained on him, Byron Johnson stood and handed out the fifteen copies of his report and the disk, as carefully as a priest bestowing a communion wafer.

“The only person likely to be indicted is, in fact, Byron Carlos Johnson.” Hamerindapal Rana glanced around the crowd of reporters in the press room at One St. Andrew’s Plaza.

“He has been the target of a federal grand jury investigation for two months. He has consistently violated rules that prohibited him from disclosing confidential information. He was ordered by a federal judge to hold in confidence and not disclose that information. He signed confidentiality agreements. He made promises. He has completely violated his promises. He has fabricated information. He has violated the confidential privileges that apply to his relationship with his client. And he may have put the lives of patriotic Americans in danger.”

“Who are the people in the video?”

“We are trying to establish that. It may be that the people in the video are actors. The video may have been an exercise in disinformation. We haven’t ruled out the possibility that Byron Johnson himself had the video produced.”

“What does Ali Hussein look like?”

“The man in the video may not be the defendant we have in custody.”

“Why not give us a picture of him?”

“That, too, is classified material.”

“Mr. Johnson has publicized a picture of his client which he says was given to him by Hussein’s brother. The man in the picture appears to be the same man in the video.”

“Ali Hussein doesn’t have a brother. And our analysts have determined the picture is at least twelve years old.”

“Who is Andrew Hurd?”

“We have never had an agent known as Andrew Hurd.”

“Isn’t he the man in charge in the video?”

“As far as we know, no one in the video is named Andrew Hurd.”

“Johnson’s report says that Kimberly Smith, the Stanford professor and television expert on terrorism, has ties to Andrew Hurd.”

“All Mr. Johnson has is a picture of the person he calls Andrew Hurd with Kimberly Smith. I’m sure Ms. Smith knows many people, and she has been photographed thousands of times with thousands of people. That is the business she is in. She’s surrounded by people.”

“Is she a government agent?”

“Absolutely not.”

“And who is Christina Rosario?”

“We have no record of anyone named Christina Rosario in any relevant agency. Our investigation so far has shown that the person Byron Johnson calls Christina Rosario had a long-term sexual relationship with Mr. Johnson and was with him in a vacation home owned by Mr. Johnson in the three days before she drowned. Local police are evaluating whether her death was a suicide, an accident, or a deliberate killing.”