224 lines
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224 lines
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Plaintext
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Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 1 Num. 8
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=====================================
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("Quid coniuratio est?")
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[From an interview with Linda Thompson on the *For the People*
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radio show, Feb. 11, 1994. Host is Chuck Harder.]
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[Continued...]
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CHUCK HARDER: We're back. We're talking to Linda Thompson. She's
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an attorney. She is the producer of what we call "Waco II",
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"Waco, the Big Lie Continues".
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Uh, now, what has the government admitted, Linda? What have they
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admitted in trial that you have solid evidence of that has not
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been out in the press?
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LINDA THOMPSON: Well, we need to cover some of the background on
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the trial first to understand what's going on.
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HARDER: O.K. Sure.
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THOMPSON: Walter Smith is the judge. And this is going on in
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federal district court, which means it's a federal court as
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distinguished from Randy Weaver's situation.
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Walter Smith was the judge in Waco. Now Dennis Greene is his
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magistrate. Now magistrates do not have the full power of a
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judge. They're usually picked by a judge; the judge picks his own
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magistrate.
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Dennis Greene is the man who signed the search warrant
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originally, and has been working hand in hand with Bill
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Johnstone, who is the U.S. attorney there. Between them, they
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have a long record of having some of the highest rates of gun
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prosecutions of anyplace in the country, right in Waco, between
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Dennis Greene and Bill Johnstone.
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Now Walter Smith, then, is the judge that sealed the search
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warrant originally. He is the man who had secret arraignments of
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the Branch Davidians (which is illegal. That's like the "star
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chamber" back in England.) When these people were brought in and
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arraigned, he held it in secret.
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Walter Smith, in his first 7 orders about the Branch Davidians,
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back in March last year [i.e. in March 1993], called them
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criminals! Himself, in his order, he referred to these people as
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criminals. Now that is, by itself (as a defense attorney), was
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basis to get rid of Walter Smith as the judge in this case. So
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it's very, very odd that no one got him off this case with
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motions and arguments and so forth.
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HARDER: Hang on a minute. Could it be that he put that in there
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so that if this thing goes one way or another, somebody can call
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for a mistrial or what have you?
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THOMPSON: Possibly. But you've got a problem when the defense
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doesn't *challenge* it, it's not the basis for an appeal. Unless
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another attorney comes in and tries to use the fact that the
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attorneys themselves didn't challenge it. But anyway, it would
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[unclear] if somebody would have challenged it and lost, they
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could appeal it. But secondly, what else he did, he is the man...
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most of these Davidians have appointed attorneys... court-
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appointed attorneys that are paid by the government.
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HARDER: Yeah?
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THOMPSON: Yeah. And Walter Smith hand picked every one of those
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attorneys. So all of the attorneys have been picked by the judge.
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Then he cut their salaries in half. Now I can tell you: The
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appointed jobs do not pay very well. Very few successful
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attorneys, anymore, take appointed cases -- for no reason other
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than the fact that you *lose* money taking those cases because
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you've got to keep your office open while you're being paid this
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pittance of money to do a very complex case. So, by cutting the
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salaries in half, any of the attorneys that *were* inclined to be
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good and do their job couldn't.
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Now then he transferred the case to San Antonio. That happens to
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be where the government's special prosecutor is from. And it also
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happens to be where the government's chief witness for the FBI,
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Jeff Jamar, is from. So that makes it very convenient for the
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government, less expensive, less hassle. And it causes a *lot* of
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trouble for the defense attorneys, who have to commute and
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essentially set up an office in San Antonio. Now they're going to
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have to fund their own expenses for all of that at the time that
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they're being paid virtually nothing!
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Now doing any kind of defense on a case this complex is going to
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be *extremely* expensive because you've gotta pay a lot of
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people. You've gotta take depositions of a lot of witnesses. That
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costs about $400 to $1,000 apiece. There's a lot of time
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involved. You need a lot of assistants to do it. They don't have
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that available to 'em. They can't *do* a good job. Even if they
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want to, they can't.
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HARDER: Well where's the American Civil Liberties Union in this?
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THOMPSON: Well... That's another story. We'll get to them in a
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minute...
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HARDER: All right.
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THOMPSON: ...get down to San Antonio to do this trial and you've
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got seven... You've got the attorneys that were all picked by
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Walter Smith. Walter Smith is still on the case, even though he's
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transferred it to San Antonio, he is still the judge.
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We get to trial. *He* picked the jury pool and he hand picked all
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the jurors. And then he kept the jurors anonymous. You can't know
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the identities of each of the jurors. No one can.
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Then he put a gag order on all of the attorneys and he hand
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picked the press that would be allowed in to cover the story.
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He's only allowed 5 members of the press into the trial to cover
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the story. *We* know that 2 of those 5 are government. Three of
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them we don't know anything about, but we're not *hearing*
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anything so we can presume that they were picked for that reason
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-- you know, that they would not provide good [press] coverage,
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they would not talk this up, and they wouldn't reveal what's
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going on in the trial.
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So before we even get to trial, what people should understand is
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this: This thing is fixed. It's rigged.
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Now looking at it you could reasonably think, "Well it's rigged
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so they're sure to get a conviction." But that's not true either.
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Some of the people who are on trial are *not* Branch Davidians.
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They are government plants; they're agents that were already in
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Mount Carmel before the raid. You might remember some of the
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comments that were made afterwards by Ann Richards and Janet
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Reno, uh, that we should have agencies working together so we
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don't have a problem with one agency running up on another
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agency's undercover operation. This is what happened in Waco. You
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had agencies attacking Mount Carmel that didn't know the other
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agencies were already working undercover there.
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HARDER: Um-hum. [Indicates he understands]
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THOMPSON: So some of the people that were brought out, for
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instance, the day of the fire, were not Branch Davidians. They
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were, in fact, one agency's undercover operatives. That... Those
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people are on trial anyway because they can't afford to tell you,
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tell the American public, "These are agents." All right? They
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don't want their identity revealed.
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Now what happens if you have a government agent and you put 'em
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on -- you know, an undercover agent like that -- you put 'em on
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trial. They're charged with a crime. They have the same
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protection as any defendant. They've got the 5th amendment right
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not to testify. They never have to admit they're agents. They
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never have to testify. And they're fine, as long as they're
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acquitted, right?
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HARDER: Right.
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THOMPSON: Now what we're seeing in this trial, that I think is
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very, very interesting, is the government is *throwing* the
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trial. For now, the only side of the story that has been
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presented has been the prosecution's case. You will *not* see
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a... Realize: The U.S. attorney has no surprises. There are... He
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does not put a witness on the stand he has not interviewed. He's
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going to know exactly what that witnesses testimony is going to
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be.
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HARDER: Um-hum. [Indicates he understands]
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THOMPSON: Now if you have one brain [cell] in your head, you do
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not put a witness on the stand that's gonna hurt your side.
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That's the other side's job. All right? You don't go lining up
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witnesses that get on the stand and tell things that are bad for
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you. And you certainly don't elicit that testimony yourself. And
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yet that's exactly what the government has done. They have put up
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witness after witness, *of their own*, that has said things like,
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"Well, yeah, we did shoot our own agents," "Yeah, well, we were
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gonna make this dynamic entry," "Yeah, we did lose the element of
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surprise."
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Now. There's 2 reasons this is happening: (1) The government is
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throwing the trial. But (2) the only story that comes out that
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way is exactly the same story that we've got in the ATF final
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report and what we've heard in the media all along. It is damage
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control. Even though they appear to be making all these great
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admissions, they're not admitting anything more than they've
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already admitted. And they're making sure that the story stays
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the same in the process of the trial. And they're throwing the
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trial.
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They're probably going to get convictions of the real Branch
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Davidians. The people that are acquitted are suspect. But I don't
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believe we're going to see convictions of the government agents
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in this trial. And I think that's the purpose of what's going on
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here and why there has been such extreme control.
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HARDER: [Pause.... ] Wow!
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Linda Thompson is a lawyer. She is with us. She's talking to us
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about what she knows about the Waco trial. She has provided...
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She has produced, I should say, a new videotape which is now
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[Feb. 11, 1994] just in the duplication stage, called "Waco, the
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Big Lie Continues," or "Waco II," if you please. It's available
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through us, if you want to call up 1-800-888-9999. We'll be right
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back.
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(to be continued)
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-----------------------------------------------------------------
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I encourage distribution of "Conspiracy Nation."
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
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Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et
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pauperem. -- Liber Proverbiorum XXXI: 8-9
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