Hamjatta,

To begin with, I must confess that I do not take you seriously any more,
and, honestly, you didn't even deserve a response from me, but after a
second thought, I came to the conclusion that, for historical purposes, I
need to give you a fitting response.

Frankly speaking, I have to say that when you first started sending articles
to the L, I used to find time to read them, and I must say that I did find a
few of them useful and informatory.

But, to tell you the truth, of late, I do not even bother to read your
postings, or even to open them, because I find most of your analyses,
especially vis-a-vis the transition period, a joke or, to put it more
mildly, very shallow and misguided. You still lack clarity and maturity, and
I must sincerely advice you, as a brother, to take your lessons seriously so
that you can give us better analyses on the L.

In fact, in your posting to me, it was good that you captioned it "Attention
Ebrima Ceesay", otherwise I wouldn't have bothered myself to open it (if it
came under a different title).

Interestingly, when you posted some thing to the L, on beliefs and systems,
some time ago, your conclusions were different from what I had been taught,
or read. Consequently, I did a print out of your article, and had to ask a
Professor friend of mine who teaches Politics, what he thought of your
article/arguments.

And, in reply, he said in a nutshell, that the analysis suggested a writer
who was "confused".

And he didn't just stop at that. Like someone on the L, he too said to me
that I should let you know that while it was true that reading was a very
good habit, it was equally important that one should read books or materials
he or she can comprehend or grasp. "There is no point in reading any
literature that would end up confusing you," he advised. My brother, I,
therefore, hope that you would take note of this wise counsel before it is
too late.

Hamjatta, as I told you yesterday, in black and white, I've noticed that you
are someone who is clearly very impulsive, but I am not. Take from me that I
am always very careful with what I write, or say, especially in relation to
Gambian politics.

Of course, I am not a perfect person and, as such, I do make mistakes from
time to time, but I can tell you that when it comes to editorial matters, my
mistakes are minimal, if you compare them with the rate with which I write.

Hamjatta, I have both the capacity and the creativity to be sending articles
to the L, on a daily basis, till the end of the year, but because I
calculate whatever I have to say or write, I am obliged to take my time and
make sure that the time is always appropriate before posting anything to the
L.

Again, let me repeat to you that I have my reasons, and I believe they are
good ones, for asking "Ebou Colley" in the open, the questions I asked, most
of whose answers I already know. As I said yesterday, because you have a
school boy's knowledge, you wouldn't understand or appreciate my game plan,
but, at the appropriate time, I'll tell you, in unequivocal terms, why I did
what I did.

Hamjatta, you do not know me and I do not know you. We only met through
Gambia L, and how dare, just based on one posting, you accused me of being
"inept and amateurish."

I can tell you that if you regard my Journalism as being "inept and
amateurish", then you are unwittingly insulting or degrading Gambian
Journalism, because the person you accused of being "inept and amateurish",
is considered as one the best news writers in the Gambia and the West
African Sub region.

I hope you wouldn't in turn accuse me of boasting, or blowing my own
trumpet, because saying these things become inevitable, in the wake of your
unfounded allegations/accusations.

By the way, Kenneth Y Best, the former owner of the Daily Observer, who is
regarded as one of Africa's most respected journalists and orators is on
Gambia L. So you can ask him about what he thinks of my journalism.

The article you sent to the Daily Observer, on the fifth anniversary of
AFPRC, was addressed to "the editor, Sheriff Bojang." Well, Sheriff did work
under me, while I was at the Observer, so why not ask him what he thinks of
journalism.

If Baba Galleh Jallow is the one who encouraged you into writing, then I
challenge you to ask Baba what he thinks of my Journalism. Or since you are
in the UK, call the BBC and ask Elizabeth Ohene, one of the best in the
business, what she thinks of my Journalism.

Hamjatta, I hate to say this publicly, but if I didn't have a good editorial
judgement, I wouldn't have survived the Jammeh regime, during the transition
period.

Let me now share with you some of my ordeals during the transition period,
and you then tell me whether a reporter who is "inept and amateurish" could
have survived all these ordeals.

Just for the record, when the coup took place on 22 July 1994, I was an
assistant editor at the Daily Observer, while A.A Barry was the News Editor.
Kenneth Best himself was the Editor-in-chief.

Now, a few weeks after the coup, and prior to Kenneth Best's deportation, Mr
Barry left the Observer to join the government and later became Jammeh's
Press Officer. As a result, Kenneth Best made me the News Editor, and, in
keeping with the law, my name had to be written at bottom end of the back
page of the Observer as the "News Editor".

And although Kenneth Best was, at the time, the editor in chief, his name
only appeared at the bottom end of the back of the newspaper as the
"managing director."

Now what this meant that was that if the Observer carried anything deemed
libellous, or disliked by the Jammeh regime, legally speaking, I'll be held
responsible, because I was, as it were, the one whose name had appeared at
the bottom end of the newspaper and also at the Registrar General's Office
in the Ministry of Justice, as the guardian/custodian of the paper.

Worse of all, it was during this period that Kenneth Best was also deported
to his war torn country of Liberia, and that of course, added more burden to
my already heavy load.

It was also during this period that I became the BBC Gambia correspondent,
replacing Rodney Sieh, who had to be expelled by the authorities from the
Gambia.

Hamjatta, from this period, I started sending reports that were very
critical of Jammeh to the BBC, and also putting hard hitting headlines in
the Observer. You can therefore imagine how angry the regime must have been
with with me.

Hamjatta, let me now tell you what happened to me next, and D.A. Jawo, who
is on the L, can attest to the fact, or perhaps tell you more about the
story.

In the first quarter of 1995, I had traveled overseas, and when I came back
to work, at the Daily Observer, I found a lady waiting for me who wanted to
become a reporter with us, but Theophilus George, then the acting Managing
Director, asked her to wait until I had returned.

When I resumed work the woman, Fatoumatta Jallow, half Gambian and Sierra
Leonean, came to my Office and said that she wanted to become a reporter
with us, and because Mr George and myself trusted her, we decided to offer a
reporting job to her, after we got confirmation that she did a degree at
Fourah College.

But to our amazement, we would later discover that she was on the pay roll
of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA). However, before we discovered her
links with the NIA, she had already done much damage to me in particular,
and the Observer in general.

Anyway, just after three weeks with us, at the Daily Observer, she said to
me and to the late Lorraine Forster, that she, Fatoumatta Jallow, "loved
me".

And perhaps because at the time, I was singled, naive, weak, but more so,
given her appealing looks, I just found her living with me and my family at
our home.

And at home, just like the Daily Observer, we trusted her and she then got
to know everything I was involved in. She would take messages for me both on
the house and office phones, from my friends, international institutions,
diplomats and my sources/contacts in the Jammeh government etc.

At this point, no one in the Daily Observer, or among my family, knew that
Fatoumatta was implanted in me and the Observer, in order to spy on me and
the Daily Observer as an Institution.

First, our reporter in Washington DC, Fatou Jaw Manneh, sent me a copy of
the "JALIBAA", and it was only Fatoumatta and Alieu Badara Sowe, who saw it.
But the next moment, the NIA had known about the JALIBAA issue with me. To
cut a long story short, in the end, the NIA had to confiscate the JALIBAA
issue from me, having deemed it as "a subversive publication."

Then the Washington DC based National Democratic Institute (NIA) appointed
Tanya Domi, as a Field Director to their Gambia Office, and she was told by
one of her bosses in Washington DC to try and see me upon arrival in Banjul.

Now, just a few weeks after starting work in the Gambia, Tanya asked me to
send her three reporters, so that she can brief them OFF THE RECORD, on the
AFPRC's transition programme. I then assigned Moco Macauley, Alieu Badara
Sowe and Fatoumatta Jallow to her, and the next thing we heard was that the
Jammeh regime had given Tanya 48 hours to leave the Gambia, for making what
they called unacceptable comments.

Again, we would later discover that her whole OFF THE RECORD conversation
with three reporters was secretly recorded by Fatoumatta, and then handed
over to the NIA.

Fatoumatta, meanwhile, kept on giving information about me and the Observer
to the NIA; and, sadly though, up to this time, we still didn't have a clue
that she was an informer. At the same time, she was still living us and
pretending to be this wonderful woman.

Then Mary Harper of the BBC African Service and her son came to visit/stay
with me and she, too, thinking that Fatoumatta was genuine, told her about
the purpose of her (Mary's) visit and also the kind of stories she would
write about the Jammeh regime for the BBC and The Economist upon her return
to the UK.

Subsequently, all the requests that Mary made to interview senior government
officials were turned down, because Fatoumatta, on the whole, had already
told them the angle Mary Harper was going to take if the interviews were
granted.

Also, we had an excellent column, called "Private Eye with Adama" and most
of the readers, including the Security Forces, wanted to know who this
"Adama" was. Her articles were always critical of the AFPRC, and she wrote
so lucidly and with such a unique style.

However, even some senior staff of the Observer, at the time, didn't know
who this Adama was, but admittedly Fatoumatta did know the lady because she
was present on two occasions, when "Adama" brought her articles to me for
publication.

Then I was totally shocked when a senior member of the NIA called me and
revealed to me who this "Adama" was, before going on to complain about her
column. Anyway, to cut a long story short, "Adama" has long since returned
to her home, Britain, after her marriage with her Gambian husband broke out.

I must say that "Adama's" marriage was a very successful one before the
coup, and, in fact, she did write two best selling books on the marriage. So
it was really a puzzle to her when she discovered that her excellent
marriage was in tatters during the transition period.
This is what I suspect happened: When it became clear to the government that
they couldn't have good grounds to deport "Adama", they had to use her
husband who later became "too nasty" towards and consequently, her departure
from the Gambia "became inevitable."

Anyway, the last straw was when Captain Ebou Jallow tendered his resignation
and then sent the letter to the press, in which he accused the Jammeh
government of murder, corruption etc.

When we got a copy of the letter, we wanted to publish it in full, but the
late A.A Njie, who was serving as our editorial adviser, at the time, was of
the view that the letter shouldn't be published, because he thought its
content was "libellous."

I then decided to take it to our lawyer, Ms Ida Drammeh, to seek her opinion
on the letter, and when I was going to Ida's office in Banjul, the late
lorraine Forster and Fatoumatta went with me in the car.

Now, after Ida had given me her legal opinion on the letter, Fatoumatta and
lorraine took the letter from me while I was talking to a friend, and then
went to a nearby photocoping machine and made many copies of the letter
without my knowledge.

Fatoumatta then told Lorraine, not in my presence though: "Let's go and give
these copies to O.J Jallow, M.C Cham and others."

Lorraine, not knowing that Fatoumatta was a spy, or an informer, followed
her and they went on distributing the letter to everywhere. Then the same
Fatoumatta, on the same day, called the NIA and told them who and who were
given the Ebou Jallow letter. Later, on the same day, Lawyer Darboe, M.C
Cham, O.J Jallow, M.C Cham, Raif Diab, Lorraine Forster herself and others
were arrested and detained in terrible conditions at the Bakau Depot, for a
long period.

Now in order to deceive the public, the NIA certainly had to arrest
Fatoumatta, but she was, of course, released on the same afternoon. In fact,
I am writing this in tears because I am now recalling the pressures and
harassment Lorraine and I underwent because of this incident, since both of
us were threatened to be charged, originally, with Treason.

No wonder Lorraine later died "suddenly" some months after judgement was
delivered in the case. She was found guilty by the Court and mentally that
really affected her. Anyway, I myself was not, in the end, charged because
Justice Akamba, the DPP at the time, said that if I were to tell the "whole
truth" about what I knew, I wouldn't be charged.

Meanwhile, when we discovered Fatoumatta's true colours, we put a public
notice in the Daily Observer, disassociating her from the Observer. Many
members of the public were later to be shocked when they learnt that, on the
whole, Fatoumatta was an informer for the NIA.

For me I personally was somewhat saved by a government prosecutor, because
the prosecutor, knowing the mine fields that were place in front of me, had
to tell me that Fatoumatta was working with them, adding that there was
already a file on me.

So when things became too much for her she left the Gambia surreptitiously
for the UK, because she already had a valid UK visa on her passport, which
ironically I had earlier got for her, in case of emergency, not knowing that
she was a devil.

Hamjatta, from this period, until I left the Gambia soon after the
Presidential Election, it was really rough and tough with me, but the
important thing is that your "inept and amateurish" journalist, despite all
the land mines, had survived.

Imagine this: For over two years, I was both an editor and a BBC
correspondent and this was during the coup period, yet and no one ever took
me to court for libel for anything I either said or wrote. Yes, the
Government did take us to court, but that had to do with tyranny and
Journalism.  Anyway, do you sincerely believe that you, of all people, with
your school boy's knowledge, would have survived all these line mines
targetted for me, if you were in my shoes. I'll pause here till another
time.

Ebriam Ceesay,
Birmigham, UK.

PS: Gambia L, I must apologise for having to send this kind of posting to
the L, but the important thing is that it has got the approval of Sandra. I
appreciate the private mails from those subbscribers who advised me to
ignore Hamjatta, but I had already written this piece. So I have no choice,
except to send it.

"Ebou Colley", you and I know each other well, so I have nothing personal
against you. I am sure you do know that. Anyway, I am glad that you are
someone who knows my position when the issue is to do with Jammeh and his
coup.

I just wanted to be more transparent that's why I raised those questions
openly. You yourself know that I've already got the answers to the questions
I asked, but, at the same time, I have a genuine purpose for doing so.
Gambia L, "Ebou Colley" himself can confirm to the L that I, for one,
already have the answers for the questions I asked him, but, as I stated
before, I have good reasons for doing what I did.


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