Say the magic word

It's American.

When I wanted to use the western toilet usually off limits to the public at the newspaper, our interpreter told authorities I was American.

When Said, our fixer, wants to park illegally in the high-security zone around the President's resident while Don makes a cookie run into a superette, he tells the anxious police -- they are American.

When Shar, one of our drivers, wants to pull into a guarded parking lot close to the university building we are meeting in he points to us and utters the magic word. American.