With his dark hair, burnt-sienna skin, and flashing teeth, he looked like an actor off the set of Lawrence of Arabia. In fact, he was a career military man far from home. Major Ali Al Rahim was a Saudi Arabian pilot assigned to two years of elite training at an air base in southern California. He was pleased with his posting, but he had a problem: unrelenting cramps and diarrhea. "Could it be the food?" he wondered. Some days after lunch he shuttled from flight lab to lavatory nearly every hour.
The major's gut had plagued him for years, but never like this. After seeing the base medic, he began taking anti-motility drugs. But the problems didn't go away, so he returned to the clinic time and again. Then he showed up one day with a tender belly and a bloody stool.
That's when an official request went forth. Would ...
