WEBVTT

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I chose a profession that allows me
to go places you can't go.

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I am a photojournalist.

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My job is also sometimes to show you

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things you don't want to see.

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Ironically, my job is
to show you the gray areas.

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For me, it all started
in Afghanistan in 2004.

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I showed up very biased,
full of preconceived ideas,

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and honestly, that worked well for me.

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The next year, I got caught
in a suicide bombing.

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Miraculously I came out uninjured,

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but I got a tough reality check.

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In 2006 I was embedded with U.S. soldiers.

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I didn't know them,

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but I couldn't stand them, I hated them.

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For me they were brutes
who were mistreating the Afghans.

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Stuck there together, we waited.

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We waited for something to happen,

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and eventually, I started
to think they were nice, funny,

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I started to become attached to them.

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But one evening Mike, at only 19,
burst out laughing and told me:

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"Once I fired a missile at a guy.

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I thought he was a member of the Taliban.

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He turned into a flaming torch
and ran around like a crazy chicken."

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Everyone laughed,

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but it didn't make me laugh.

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Yet, I came to realize that with time,
war dehumanizes the enemy

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and makes the person
on the other mean nothing.

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And yet, I met that person
on the other side.

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Eric de la Varenne, Claire Billet, and I
were the first westerners

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to meet members of the Taliban.

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Claire and I had to wear our burkas.

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Here's my secret to make
the fenced-in vision more bearable,

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I have a little trick.

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I crank my iPod up the whole way
with Madonna's "Like a virgin."

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That's my little revenge.

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After a long road traveled in silence

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and in sweltering heat,

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finally, there they were,
it was really them.

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The young soldiers come towards us

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and welcome us with cakes and juice,

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and then start taking selfies
with us and laughing.

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They used their limited
supply of English words,

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we all ended up relaxing,
and all of a sudden

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(Music)

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one of their ringtones.

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(Laughter)

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These were the Taliban?

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In reality, I was most shocked

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by the things the young American GIs
and the young insurgents had in common.

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So I made a choice that may be offensive
or unsettling, but that I find relevant

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to highlight the similarities
of these enemies,

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even though these enemies
don't think of each other as people.

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But it's a war,
and in a war, there are victims.

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August 18, 2008,

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ten French soldiers and their fixer
were killed in an ambush in Uzbin.

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I was sent to cover the Afghan side.

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Experience has taught me
that after every attack,

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there is an air strike retaliation.

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Three villages near where
the ambush took place were bombed.

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There were casualties,
civilian casualties.

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I had to go to the site, but the zone
was controlled by the Taliban,

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so I had to request their permission.

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And it starts all over again:

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a burka, a long road, an escort,

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and anxiety, I'm scared.

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And all of a sudden, there are
silhouettes descending the hill.

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It's them.

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I explain my plan to the leader,
but he refuses.

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I insist, and then I notice
that one of them

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is carrying a weapon
that seems really modern.

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I ask him what it is.

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He replies that it's one of the weapons
taken from the body of a slain soldier.

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In fact, without knowing it,

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I had come face to face with
the insurgents responsible for the ambush.

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So, for taking the photos you just saw,

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I received death threats.

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My parents received terrible letters,

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and they even lost friends.

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I was accused of having paid
the Taliban 50,000 euros

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which of course is stupid
and completely unrealistic.

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For one thing, for ethical reasons
we never pay the people we photograph.

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Secondly, our reporters never walk around
with that much money on them.

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I have also been accused
of spreading their propaganda.

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On that point, let's be clear.

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Whenever a group,
whether it's the Taliban or even the army,

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decides to give a journalist
some of their time,

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you can be sure they have
a message to get across.

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I have also been accused
of being unpatriotic

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or of betraying my country.

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Why? Because I dared
to show the enemy's face?

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Well, I don't believe I disrespected
the lives of the fallen soldiers,

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although I understand that it
could be difficult for their families,

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yet some parents thanked me

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because they were longing
for the truth even if it hurt.

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In no way do I seek to justify

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the horrible acts
committed by the Taliban.

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I just want to give you
as much information as I can

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so you can have the facts
to come to your own conclusions.

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It's true it would be simpler

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if everyone in the world
was either a good guy or a bad guy,

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but this is war, and in war,
that's rarely the case.

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War is neither black nor white,

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it's dirty, it's gray.

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In fact, I've seen these gray areas
in many other countries.

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In particular in the Niger delta,

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an area ruined by oil.

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Nothing grows there,
and there's nothing to fish.

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Meanwhile, the local rulers
fill their pockets.

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That's when MEND came along: the Movement
for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta.

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They hide out in the mangrove swamp,
and their thing is kidnapping,

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attacking oil rigs, and controlling
the black market for oil.

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Both Manon Quérouil,
the journalist I work with, and I

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really wanted to meet Ateke,

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one of the big leaders of these
modern day so-called Robin Hoods.

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So, as you can see, the Robin Hood
we ended up meeting

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was short, chubby, and uninspiring.

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He welcomed us sprawled out on his sofa
with a lukewarm bottle of Veuve Clicquot.

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In fact, for some time now,
things are much easier for them

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because they are paid directly
by the oil companies

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so they won't attack them.

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So they have lots of cash,
and they're just bored.

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Girls from the area, drawn by
the goose with the golden eggs,

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come to entertain these men.

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Incidentally, this little chubby man
fell for my friend.

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I had to be the big sister,
and explain to him

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that in France we get married
before we sleep together.

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Well, he seemed a little doubtful,

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but he finally accepted
to send us back to town

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so we could have a girls' shopping trip.

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Needless to say, Ateke is still
waiting for his runaway fiancee.

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Ateke, who was
long public enemy number one,

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today is a close friend
of the new president, Jonathan Goodluck,

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and, apparently, one
of the country's wealthiest men.

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So in fact these Robin Hoods,
are just regular thugs?

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Black and white is for fairy tales,
real life comes in color.

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It's more troubling, more complicated,
but it's more interesting.

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And Nigeria is very familiar
with these complex situations.

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I was able to see this again working
on a report in the north on Boko Haram.

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Manon and I were not able to meet them,

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but we came to realize
that Boko Haram's roots

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were much more complex
and much older than they seemed.

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In fact, for over ten years now,
a real war is being waged

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between the Nigerian army
and Boko Haram.

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And it's a war without mercy;
an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.

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The Nigerian army burns madrassas,
Boko Haram burns schools.

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The Nigerian army abducts
women and children

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suspected to have ties
with members of the sect,

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Boko Haram abducts young girls.

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The truth is that the north of the country

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was completely abandoned
by the government in the south.

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The northerners, left to their
own defenses, naturally, became resentful.

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Boko Haram took advantage
of this resentment to draw in the youth;

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and the near criminal behavior
of this corrupt army

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led to a series of abominations
each one more tragic than the last,

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until, as we all remember,
the abduction of 219 high school girls

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that finally managed to get our attention.

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So, let us be clear:
nothing we were able to discover

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justified the abduction
and enslavement of young girls.

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Seeking out the enemy
does not mean defending them,

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and I do not want to become a spokesperson
for the Taliban, MEND, or Boko Haram.

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I am in no way trying to justify
or defend their revolting actions,

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I just want to allow you
to understand them better,

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so you might have the knowledge,
to think in an informed manner.

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Because I believe that sometimes,

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knowing more, understanding better,
helps in finding the solution,

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and that many errors
could have been avoided

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with a better understanding
of the people and the territory.

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So we clearly see that black
and white doesn't work

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because in Afghanistan, the youth fighting
on both sides are not that different.

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Because MEND and other Robin Hoods
are thugs like any other,

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because the roots of Boko Haram
are very complex.

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So, it's true that black and white
is nicer, it's more elegant,

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but it's simplistic,
and most of all, it's false.

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Color is not an absolute, it's
more blurred, but it's closer to reality.

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So I want to continue
to introduce you to these insurgents,

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these revolutionaries, these terrorists,

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so that you can come
to informed conclusions.

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That is why we reporters are there,

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and sometimes risk our lives.

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We go where you cannot go,

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show you what, sometimes,
you don't want to see.

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You have a right to know
the truth, so demand it.

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(Applause)