S9, Chapter 5: Homecoming

WEBVTT

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Tapes from the Dark Side contains descriptions
of violence and sexuality. Listener discretion is

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advised before we jump into this episode. There's something I have to address,

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something rather major that I got wrong. It appears that in my excitement of

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finding the video of Calvin's son on
the fifth floor of the Yangacto Hotel,

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overlooked an important detail, which is
that Otto Warrenbier never said he went to

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the fifth floor. In fact,
he said he went to the second floor.

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I asked my UK tour guide where
they keep the important slogans in the

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Yangacto International Hotel. She said they're
in staff only areas. That night,

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I alone walked around the second floor
lobby until I saw a staff only sign

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in English opposite the hotel shop.
Now, in my defense, I'm not

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the only one who got this wrong. The BBC and the Huffington Post both

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listed the floor that Auto visited as
being the fifth floor. This doesn't really

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change much about our story, but
I figured anyone paying attention was probably confused,

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So there it is. It was
the second floor, not the fifth

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floor. On March sixteenth, twenty
sixteen, Autowarmbier was sentenced to fifteen years

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of hard labor. After the details
in the last episode, I think you

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can imagine what that means now.
I've read about Auto's case on countless blogs,

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websites, the news article, comments, Facebook, and reddits, and

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it seems like many of you are
just like me, perhaps less familiar with

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foreign policy, and are wondering why
America, one of the most powerful military

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countries in the world, would allow
one of our own citizens to spend a

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single day in a concentration camp,
and going even further than that, why

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do we tolerate North Korea and their
fascist regime at all? The answer,

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it's complicated. Anyone who's lived through
the Iraq War witnessed firsthand the follies of

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attempting to quote liberate a country from
a fascist dictator. And that's because anytime

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a dictator is removed, it creates
a power vacuum, and usually what happens

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is a new dictator or government emerges, and many times the new regime is

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even more vicious than the last.
In a similar vein the United States killed

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Osama bin Laden seemingly defeated the Taliban, but then in its place Isis emerged

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and almost took over the country of
Iraq. And now we see the Taliban

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has regained control of almost the entirety
of Afghanistan. There's also China, who

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very much has a vested interest in
keeping North Korea stable. That's one of

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the reasons they provide so much food
aid to the country and why they work

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closely with the North Korean government to
return defectors. China would not stand idly

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by if the United States were to
attack their close neighbor, mainly because they

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do not want the economic burden of
millions of refugees suddenly on their doorstep.

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When dealing with international hostage situations,
which is effectively what the ottowarm Beier situation

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had become, you're playing a delicate
game of cat and mouse where leverage is

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vital and one wrong move could ruin
a potential deal. Now, it hadn't

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been long since the United States had
successfully negotiated the peaceful release of two Americans

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from North Korea. In November of
twenty fifteen, about one year prior to

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Auto's trip. Kenneth Bay, a
Korean American missionary, and Matthew Miller,

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an alleged spy, were released,
and Bay, like Auto, had been

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given a fifteen year sentence so there
was hope. The United States government at

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the time, led by President Barack
Obama, was in contact with the Warmbier

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family and they instructed them to be
patient and trying to avoid controversy. And

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then perhaps the most frustrating part of
the process began, the waiting game,

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during which the United States would hold
a presidential election. As far as Auto

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Warmbier's story goes, not much else
happened for the entirety of twenty sixteen,

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and then in the early morning hours
of November nineteen, the results of the

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presidential election were announced when the Associated
Press called the state of Wisconsin and thus

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the presidential election for Donald Trump.
Hillary Clinton had talked about this is a

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state that Hillary Clinton hasn't even visited
since the Democratic Convention. This is a

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state that voted for Mike Decoccus over
George H. W. Bush. I

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mean, this is a reliably democratic
state. It is amazing to me.

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And this is not an original observation, but the idea that the Clinton campaign

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couldn't see white working class voters going
to Trump in places like Iowa and Ohio

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and not see that Wisconsin was also
potentially in jeopardy. That's remarkable and I

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mean this is this is truly the
beginning of the end for Hillary Clinton Camp.

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That was at two twenty nine am, and eight minutes later, at

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two thirty seven am, Hillary Clinton
did what any freedom loving American patriot does

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in the face of defeat. She
accepted the results. Despite winning the popular

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vote by nearly two million votes.
Hillary Clinton called Donald Trump and personally conceded

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the election. Not only was the
president changing, but the political color of

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the country was too, and this
meant a potential big change of for Auto

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Warmbier and family, which wouldn't necessarily
be a bad thing for them. As

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for the entirety of twenty sixteen,
there had been almost no developments in Otto's

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potential release. A few months later, Donald Trump was sworn into office January

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twentieth, twenty seventeen, and it
seems that since that very moment, the

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tension between the United States and North
Korea was raised to levels never before seen.

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Now, Kim Jong un has made
no attempts to obscure the fact that

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one of North Korea's main goals is
building an intercontinental nuclear missile capable of reaching

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the United States, and in February, North Korea successfully launched a solid fueld

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ballistic missile from a submarine. Korea's
latest ballistic missile launch is potentially more dangerous

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than any previous launches. US officials
say the missile flew higher and longer than

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any previous tests. Just days earlier, the Director of National and sounded a

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warning North Korea is an increasingly grave
national security threat to the United States because

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of its growing missile and nuclear capabilities, combined with the aggressive approach of its

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leader. The US intelligence community believes
Kim Jong gun, who directly supervised the

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latest launch, is trying to prove
he can strike the US. He has

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taken initial steps toward fielding a mobile
intercontinental ballistic missile North Korea, claiming it's

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now within striking range of the US
and can put nuclear warheads on this missile.

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We will do test launches at any
time, anywhere upon the decision of

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the Supreme Leadership. This latest launch
does take Kim one step closer to an

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intercontinental strike capability. As you can
probably guess, the United States was not

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too thrilled about this development, and
according to President Trump's chief of staff at

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the time, John Kelly, behind
closed door, the US top leadership was

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considering a preemptive nuclear attack on North
Korea. Trump himself suggested that perhaps they

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could nuke North Korea and then attempt
to pin the blame on another country.

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In April of that same year,
twenty seventeen, the North Korean Vice Foreign

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Minister Hansong Riol said that an all
out war would result if the US was

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reckless enough to use military means.
He also said quote, if the US

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is planning a military attack against US, we will react with a nuclear pre

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emptive strike by our own style and
method. Thankfully, for everyone inhabiting the

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planet Earth, that plan never came
to fruition. Nuclear attensions seemed cool for

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the time being, and perhaps that's
only because they had nowhere to go but

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down just as well. In June
of twenty seventeen, an unlikely hero emerged

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in the Auto Warmber crisis. We
hear from former NBA star Dennis Rodman on

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why he calls North Korean dictator Kim
Jong un his friend. Rodman last visited

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the closed off country the same day
American Otto warm Year, held by the

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brutal regime for seventeen months, was
released to his family. Rodman's team says

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that was no coincidence. Tonight,
we explore the seemingly bizarre relationship between the

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despot and the basketball star. Here's
ABC's Bob Woodruff. Individuals like former NBA

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player Dennis Rodman, who has become
the United states most visible unofficial diplomatic presence,

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it would opened the door. Last
week, Rodman made his fifth visit

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to North Korea. The same day
he arrived, Otto was released. I

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didn't knew that I was a onest, supposed good and get him out.

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Rodman and his agent, Chris Volo, who accompanied the former NBA player on

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his trip, sat down with ABC's
Michael Strahan for the first interview since their

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return. Otto Warrenbier was released the
same day that you went to North Korean.

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Give out to prayer and love to
his family. You know. Dennis

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Rodman, the former forward for the
NBA team the Chicago Bulls, visited Pyongyang

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and met with Kim Jong un,
And that very same day, Otto Warren

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Beier was released and he touched down
on US soil for the first time in

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seventeen months. On the morning of
June thirteenth, twenty seventeen, Otto's parents,

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Fred and Cindy begin the day not
even sure if their son was alive,

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and now they were suddenly met with
his return. But with this came

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a new nightmare. Otto was alive, but he was hanging onto life by

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a mere thread. But I didn't
know what he was sick. But he

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wasn't sick when he went there.
He was fine. A year later,

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the same day you go over,
he's released in a coma and this but

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this is in a place that you
said, this guy who runs this play

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is your friend? How can that
happen? And you still have these feelings

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and its sentiment said, oh my
god, is guys my friend. I

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guess what I'm gonna die for this
guy? Point it's not like that.

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I don't look at the political about
him. Do you think being there had

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anything to do with that? I
was organizing the trip and I meet with

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the delicates here. I addressed Otto
Warren Beer, and I said to them,

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we would need some type of good
faith if we're ever going to do

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some type of future sports relation.
I asked three times before you went,

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Before we went, I asked on
behalf of dentist for his release. They

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said they understood. That was all
that was said in that meeting. Annold's

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father said, Dennis Rodman had nothing
to do with Auto. It's try it.

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It's a diversion. You know.
They just released Otto. It's a

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diversion. We wanted to meet when
him and we came back, you know,

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but we were told that, you
know, just coldn't happen. Have

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you talked to anybody there and said, what happened with this kid? No,

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we haven't heard anything. But it's
just mysterious. Dennis, a twenty

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one year old, healthy kid.
All of a sudden he's in a coma.

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That's not normal. Something apparently happened. No one wants to say what

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happened, but something happened. Well, like I said, I'm not into

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all that. Like I said,
I was just so happy to see the

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kid released. Later that day.
That's when we found out if he was

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ill. No one knew that.
I was just so happy. I said,

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Way he got released, I said, he he has. We jumped

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coming down, all right, man, Great, some good things came out

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of this trip. Okay, great? Why did both of you do something

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that it's so controversial. I'm like, oh, no, no controversial person.

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I love it. You know,
controversion makes bad, negative and good

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publicity for everybody in the world.
People today would do anything on TV just

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to be on TV. If that
part of your motivation on to be on

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TV or no play, that's I
don't need to be on TV. I'm

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too damn famous for this. I'm
not trying to stop cockey. It was

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my god, what am I?
What am I getting out of this?

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I'm going over there out of my
kindness of my hors just to try to

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help. And next thing, you
never to come back. Wow, why

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do I do that so bad?
I'm not here to sit there and say,

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Okay, I gotta be I got
it. So you know, with

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that being said and seeing you get
a most note, do you think these

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trips you've taken have been worked?
All the criticism? Absolutely? I think

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it's the State Department sees his involvement
differently. Dennis Rodman had nothing to do

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with the release of mister Warmier.
Governor Bill Richardson, who runs a foundation

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aimed at rescuing political prisoners, so
as to personally met with the North Koreans

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to free Otto. North Koreans stiffed
me. They never said yes, they

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never said no. Otto was in
a coma and they didn't want anybody to

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know fifteen months in a North Korean
prison camp would surely change anyone, but

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nothing could have prepared the warm beers
for the state their son was in.

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His wavy, sandy brown locks had
been buzzed off, his head, bald,

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a feeding two placed in his nose. Fred and Cindy said that their

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son's arms and legs were totally deformed, and Fred said that it looked like

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someone had taken a pair of pliers
and rearrange his bottom teeth. Reports say

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that when Otto's sister saw her brother
again for the first time, she ran

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out of the airplane, screaming in
horror. Fred approached his son gave him

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a hug. Otto's eyes stared back
at his father, wide open, alien

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empty. Fred shared how much he'd
missed him, but aside from the occasional

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involuntary muscle spasm, Otto was unresponsive. His body was there, but Auto

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seemed far away. We went for
fifteen months without a word from or about

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Otto. It was only a week
ago that we were informed that the North

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Korean government now claims he was in
a coma for almost all of that time.

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There is no excuse for any civilized
nation to have kept his conditions secret

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and denied him top notch medical care
for so long. When Otto was first

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taken, we were advised by the
past administration to take a low profile while

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they worked to obtain his release.
We did so without result. Earlier this

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year, Cindy and I decided the
time for strategic patience was over, and

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we made a few media appearances and
traveled to Washington to meet with Ambassador Joe

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Yune at the State Department. It
is my understanding that Ambassador Yune and his

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team, at the direction of the
President, aggressively pursued resolution of the situation.

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They have our thanks for bringing Otto
home. I know you have many

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questions about what transpired, so do
we We have few answers. There's no

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excuse for the way the North Koreans
treated our son, and no excuse for

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the way they have treated so many
others. Our family are basically happy,

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positive people, and we're going to
stay that way. And we're thrilled that

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our son is on American soil.
We're in the school that he thrived in,

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and I'm able to talk to you
on Otto's behalf, and I'm able

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to wear the jacket that he wore
when he gave his confession. Let's start

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there, miss warm Beer, if
you don't mind tell me about the day.

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Sure. But well, in the
morning of the day that he was

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going to be medvacked home, Senator
to Portmand said he'll be home tonight,

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and I said to him, can
you tell me how Otto, how his

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how his brain is functioning. I
were really optimistic people, and so we

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were just still hopeful that we would
get Auto back and he could be like

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with he could improve and be okay. And centered Portman said it was severe

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brain damage. So, still not
knowing what that entailed, we went to

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the airport. I'm gonna let Fred
start. I'll tell you what it was

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like when we met Auto at the
airport. We were in a waiting room

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and the plane comes in comes near
to where we are. The medical team

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agrees they'll go out and meet Auto
first, and then it's a great They

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come down five or seven minutes later
and it's time for the family to go

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up and meet him. So we
walk out to the plane. The engines

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are whining. It's myself, Cindy, Austin and GRETA. Halfway up the

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stairs, we hear this loud,
guttural howling in human sound. We don't

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know what it is. We get
to the top of the steps and we

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look across in the airplane and Otto
is laying on a stretcher. He's strapped

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to the stretcher and he's moving around
and jerking violently, making these howling in

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human sounds. Gretta and Cindy go
back, leave, go down the steps.

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It's too much for them to handle. Austin and I walk over to

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Otto and he's in this condition.
He has a shaved head, his eyes

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are darting around in the there is
big as saucers. He's blind, he's

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deaf, he's got a feeding tube. And we kneel down and we hug

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him and try to connect with him. And he's a complete vegetable and I

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and his bottom teeth looked like they
had taken a pair of pliers and rearrange

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them. And so there was no
comforting Otto, and this noise kept,

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he kept doing this. We weren't
prepared for this at all. No one,

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no one could be had any idea
going in there what we were going

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to see. His hands and legs
were totally deformed, and he was you

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know, you want to say,
you want to say, this was not

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our son. This was our son, and we're proud of him. Yeah,

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but this was our son, and
this was a condition that Kim and

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his regime intentionally put him in.
How I'm listening to you and I'm just

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trying to how did he die?
How did he die? Specifically? Hasn't

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it explained to you? Oh?
You mean in the well? Oh sure.

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Two days after Otto came home,
his fever spiked to over one hundred

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and four degrees. Otto had this
huge scar on his right foot. He

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was he was on his deathbed.
When he was when he came home to

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us. This was not a pleasant
sight. Was released. They didn't want

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him to die on their soil.
Be right back after this break, stay

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with us. If our story wasn't
already weird enough, it takes another turn.

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Unsurprisingly, the North Korean regime denied
torturing Auto. Their explanation for the

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appalling state that he was returned in
was that just a few months after his

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capture back in twenty sixteen, Auto
suddenly contracted botulism that coupled with a sleeping

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pill caused an adverse reaction, and
Auto suddenly fell into a coma. North

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Korea, though claimed that he was
kept in excellent medical condition during his coma,

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and Kim Jongoon even issued the United
States a bill for Auto's medical treatment

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to the tune of two million dollars, of which Donald Trump insisted the United

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States wouldn't pay a dime Outo was
quickly hospile bitalized once he reached the United

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States, where he underwent extensive brain
scans and physical exams. And this is

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what is most peculiar. The brain
scans revealed that Auto had suffered an extensive

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loss of brain tissue, the kind
that is consistent with a cardiopulmonary event,

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basically meaning the brain was deprived of
oxygen for a length of time. There

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was no evidence backing up the North
Korean's claim of botulism, but remember it

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had been over a year that Auto
had spent in captivity, and this meant

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that the doctors had a difficult time
figuring out exactly what had happened to Auto.

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But what is perhaps more peculiar than
anything they did find is what they

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didn't find. Auto's doctors claimed to
have found no evidence of physical abuse or

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torture. There was no healing fractures, there were no bruises on his body,

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his teeth seemed completely normal, in
direct opposition to his father Fred's claim

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that they looked like they had been
rearranged by pair of pliers. We're learning

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more about the condition of Otto Wombia, the American who returned to the US

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Tuesday night after being imprisoned in North
Korea for the last fifteen months. His

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family says he returned in a coma. Wombia suffered what hospital officials described as

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a severe neurological injury during his captivity. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome.

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We are here at the request of
the Warmbier family to provide an update

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on Otto's medical condition and the care
he is currently receiving at uc Health University

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of Cincinnati Medical Center. Today you
will hear from the following physicians, doctor

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Daniel Cantor, director of the Neurocritical
Care Program, Doctor Jordan Bonamo, and

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doctor Brandon Foreman. Before we begin, we want to make clear that our

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physicians comments will focus on what we
know today regarding Auto's medical condition. We

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will begin with doctor Cantor, who
will provide a summary. We will then

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accept questions and will conclude this gathering
and approximately twenty minutes Doctor Canther, Good

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afternoon. Mister Warmbier arrived in Cincinnati
at approximately ten pm on June thirteenth.

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Doctor Jordan Bonamo and the transport team
met the aircraft and assumed care of the

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patient. At the airport. He
was transported to the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit

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at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center, where doctor Brandon Foreman and his team

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were waiting. An extensive series of
imaging and diagnostic tests began immediately upon his

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arrival at our hospital. Throughout this
process, the warm Beer family has been

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at their son's bedside and information has
been continuously shared with them. His vital

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signs were stable upon arrival and have
remained so He requires no supplemental oxygen or

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00:25:19.240 --> 00:25:26.359
respiratory assistance. He has no signs
of infection or dysfunction of the major non

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neurological organs. His neurological condition can
be best described as a state of unresponsive

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00:25:36.839 --> 00:25:45.519
wakefulness. He has spontaneous eye opening
and blinking. However, he shows no

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signs of understanding language, responding to
verbal commands, or awareness of his surroundings.

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He has not spoken. He has
not engaged in any purposeful movements or

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00:25:59.680 --> 00:26:08.039
behaviors. His exam shows a spastic
quadruparesis, which means he has profound weakness

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and contraction of the muscles of his
arms and legs. The most important diagnostic

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test thus far was a magnetic resonance
imaging scan of the brain. This study

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00:26:22.160 --> 00:26:30.960
showed extensive loss of brain tissue in
all regions of the brain. We have

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00:26:30.160 --> 00:26:38.759
no certain or verifiable knowledge of the
cause or circumstances of his neurological injury.

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This pattern of brain injury, however, is usually seen as a result of

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cardiopulmonary arrest, where the blood supply
to the brain is inadequate for a period

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of time, resulting in the death
of brain tissue. We received copy of

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00:27:00.279 --> 00:27:07.599
brain MRI images from the medical personnel
in North Korea. The earliest images are

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dated April two, sixteen. Based
upon our analysis of those images, the

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00:27:15.759 --> 00:27:22.720
brain injury likely occurred in the preceding
weeks. At the request of the family,

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information regarding his prognosis, prospects for
improvement, and future care and treatment

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00:27:32.039 --> 00:27:40.960
will remain confidential throughout this ordeal.
The warm Beer family has shown remarkable courage,

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00:27:41.880 --> 00:27:48.720
strength and compassion on behalf of the
medical staff, nurses and associates of

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00:27:48.759 --> 00:27:55.599
the University of Cincinnati Medical Center.
I can say that it is our privilege

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to care for their son and brother. Thank you. At this time,

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00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:07.359
we will accept questions coming up on
the season finale of the Otto Warm Beer

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00:28:07.440 --> 00:28:12.480
series. On Tapes from the Dark
Side, you spoke about cardio pulmonary arrest.

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What kind of things might cause cardio
pulmonary arrest? I mean because it

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00:28:18.359 --> 00:28:23.279
sounds to me like, you know, physical abuse might be something that could

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bring that on. Could you said
a little more about that. I'm your

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host, tz Borden. Thank you
for listening to Tapes from the Dark Side.

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00:28:41.920 --> 00:28:45.640
We'll read all the credits in the
final episode of this series, which

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00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:51.319
is available one week early to our
members on Patreon, and it's also add

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00:28:51.400 --> 00:28:55.480
free just like all of our episodes
on Patreon. It only takes about one

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00:28:55.519 --> 00:29:00.319
minute to join patreon dot com.
Slash Tapes from the dark Side sent of

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00:29:00.359 --> 00:29:03.519
our earnings for September. We'll go
directly to the Group of Liberty in North

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00:29:03.640 --> 00:29:10.480
Korea, helping refugees escape Kim's brutal
regime. They are a trusted in transparent

311
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organization rated four stars by Charity Navigator. Thank you to everyone who supports Tips

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from the Dark Side. And until
next time, try to enjoy the daylight.