It was rather unfortunate that my last piece was
perceived by some people, I sincerely respect, as
rather offensive to them. Certainly, I did not mean to
hurt anybody as such especially those I consider very
helpful to the struggle bring down the Yaya leadership
down.
Anyway I think the issues raised emanated more from
ordinary misunderstanding than otherwise. So for the
good ones like Joe Sambou and Sister Jabou Joh, I
would not mind resolving the matter privately, since
my time is very limited for anything else outside my
program of work.
I was however pleased that some other readers who
seemed to have understood the premise of my discourse
better dealt with some of the issues raised.
You see, it may be hard to explain but looking at
things from a realistic vantage, one would perhaps be
more understanding to my position. For months now I
have been trying alone to explain with all sincerity
the events, particularly the ordeal we went through as
soldiers during the 1994 coup. And despite the fact
that everything I stated so far was the truth and the
truth only, I have been insulted, doubted, called a
story teller, a soap opera producer, a bigot and all
what not by some readers who don't have a clue about
what transpired.  Others have even classified me as a
mere loser enraged by the power and luxuries I lost in
the APRC government. Then when for the first time
another military officer, a credible witness to a
special situation of great importance surfaced to
corroborate my statement he got hounded far beyond
what could be termed normal. I believe that the
attempt made to demonize Chongan at that point was
somehow an indirect effort to also put more doubt in
my credibility. I would have viewed Chongan's critics
differently if those who had accused him of torture
and abuse of human rights had presented more concrete
evidences by giving specifics rather than the
generalized allegations they had presented against the
officer. My first decision was to explain the details
behind the difficult conditions Chongan was compelled
to work under, in an atmosphere that sometimes left
him with no option but to act tough or else lose his
command control. That was the bigger picture I had
meant to explain, which I did, on the
post-confederation security lapse suffered by both
Senegal and The Gambia.
But while I was struggling reconcile the negative
effects the attack on Chongan may have had on him and
those other witness-officers who perhaps could have
been encouraged by Chongan's gesture to come forward
also but now would give it up in fear of the
unnecessary attacks, Batch surfaced with a more
destructive agenda.
Batch the greatest liar I have ever read who seemed to
have been waiting for nothing but the opportunity to
attack my character or past record with nothing
substantial chose this Chongan moment to declare his
meticulously planned war. So while others were
genuinely out to place Chongan where they thought he
belonged, Batch was happy that the chance he was
waiting for to submit his first set of lies against me
had come. His attacks were guided by no rules of
decency, conscience or godliness.
The issue of the Farafenni attackers he started with
was elaborately dealt with a couple of months ago when
somebody culled an article from one of the private
news papers in The Gambia on the extradition of
seemingly innocent Gambians from Senegal in 1997 in
which the report insinuated that I took a rather
unethical role in the process. In that episode, it
took me a painstaking period to explain the whole
story behind those extradited men from Senegal. They
were the same rebels whose colleagues later attacked
Farafenni. For those who read Batche's lies in which
he futilely attempted to portray these men as victims
of my command, they clearly put it to him that his
allegations were unfounded. The TV interview about the
captured rebels he was trying to juggle with in his
first set of lies was recorded and distributed all
over the world and it was evident to those who viewed
it that the men were not the helpless saints as
portrayed. That is why I took my time to highlight the
profiles of these vicious killers who were best kept
in handcuffs as common murderers are treated. I also
took the trouble briefly to talk about the good young
soldiers they killed in cold blood.
Apart from that, other readers underscored the
importance of the state duty we had fulfilled in
crushing that unpopular insurgency.
So now that his first big lie has been reduced to what
it really was the clown decided to change the position
of the goal post and come up with more lies and
baseless allegations. Let us now look at his latest
text line by line. It would be easier and clearer to
deal with in this approach.

Dear Samsudeen,

Thank you very much for your response to my
accusations of arrogance
and
pomposity that you displayed when you were still the
Army Commander of
the
Gambia National Army. It is a very welcome and
courageous gesture, on
your
part, to take up the challenge to defend yourself.
This is what we
need. If
all Gambians in positions of responsibility are
prepared to be taken to
task
to answer to their words and deeds whilst in positions
of authority,
Gambia
will be able to build a very mature, dignified and
informed citizenry
who
can never be fooled or taken for granted by any person
or group of
persons.

I have, however, never hoped that our debate will
extend so much beyond
rhetorics to the point where you use angry invectives
and witticisms
only to
try to confuse and befog the fundamental issues that I
raised.

Sam, I had never intended to go this far with you
because of two
considerations. Firstly, in spite of our differences I
still held you
in
high esteem as a "koto". And secondly, and most
importantly, I have
always
had the opinion and belief that at this critical
moment of our history
when
the dignity and conscience of our nation are everyday
continuously
being
trampled upon and compromised by the actions of those
at the helm, it
behoves all its citizens to create a forum of
discourse where our
common
interest will be discussed and a clear path paved for
the future.

However, hence you have decided to blow the whistle
for a rough race, I
have
no alternative but to take up the challenge with you
to the end.

It is, of course, unfortunate that the time that
should have been spent
discussing other productive and more pertinent issues
will now be spent
in
refuting allegations and justifying one's actions.
Why not Batch? Allegations that are baseless must be
refuted especially when one's actions does not show
anything close to what has been asserted by a confused
hate creature.

Sam, I must admit that the language that you used in
your exposition is
not
the type of language that I expected from an astute
intellectual and a
seasoned military heavyweight of your calibre. You
have used all sorts
of
adjectives ranging "meaningless creatures" to
"nonentities". I do not
feel
offended in anyway. I only wonder how you would have
perceived me had I
described you as one of the cheapest intellectual
whores ever in
Gambian
history, who after being used by the "moron" and
dumped, is so filled
with
rage and frustration that he is beginning to lose all
his senses of
direction. Of course, you would have classified me as
somebody who
hates
you, and who is only interested in tarnishing your
records. I will
definitely not stoop so low like you. "That's another
one of your lies you are trying to present shrewdly.
To say that Yaya used me and dumped me resulting to my
anger and frustration is blatant ignorance of the
circumstance that led to my parting with the system.
Did you ever hear the reason why I fell apart with the
Yaya government? Did you ever ask your dishonest self
why the APRC government never gave an official version
of how I left the army? Or did you come up with your
own fabrication to be used in your series of lies
later. Bacth I am not as cheep as you or your gang of
conspirators. I worked in that government with god in
my heart, my conscience guiding me and strongly
committed to my principles. When my principles were
challenged, I counter-challenged my authorities and
showed them where my boundaries were drawn. So don't
bother us with that generalization that I was used and
dumped without any evidence or specifics. The army was
a life and death environment. I am therefore happy
that I left that job in one piece. One bullet in my
thigh was enough. I have missed death several times in
being a soldier. So nursing in your envious mind that
we were employed in a job full of fun and luxury is an
unfortunate belief in your sorry head. Oh, but I
almost forgot; a liar is a liar regardless of what. .
Talking about not stooping so low? You are nothing but
filth and dirt.
Let's go further into your shameless garbage.

When I first took issue with you, my central point of
emphasis was
two-fold
- one, the way and manner in which you went about
mystifying the
so-called
"impregnable" fortress of State House where your
biggest demon still
hides;
and secondly the brutality that the captured
"mercenaries" were
subjected to
by having their hands handcuffed together at their
backs, and the signs
of
merciless torture that was so naked on their bodies.
No Lia,r your central point was my pomposity and
arrogance and how best you could portray me as a
serial torturer or even murderer. Furthermore, as I
said earlier you failed to let the common reader
understand that you were talking about hard-core
murderers who had just murdered six innocent soldiers
and critically wounding six others, some of them
permanently disabled. Now it is "their handcuffed
hands together behind their backs and the SIGNS of
merciless torture that was so naked on their bodies.
Signs my foot! Tell us where they were tortured who
tortured them and when. Knowing that you had watched
everything on TV, your dishonesty would disallow your
cynic mind to remember that these were men who
suffered gun shots too during the attack while some of
them ran from the Gambia to Senegal on a stressful
condition. Remember Sulayman Sarr narrating that Sonko
his partner shot him in the early part of the attack.
He fled to a hospital in Kaolack where the Senegalese
authorities later arrested him and handed him over in
a stretcher. Mballow Kanteh was also shot in the leg.
Drammeh was found by school children playing at the
outskirts of their village, helpless with exhaustion.
The villagers captured him and handed him over to the
police. You see, I am giving you specifics. That is
what I expect from your dishonest self. Tell me about
the specifics of the torture you are lying about me.
Don't cloud it with your devious habit of bluffing
your way through it. Tell the facts loser.
About my statements discouraging armed attackers from
attempting to attack State House, I strongly believed
it was my duty to say so. What's the fuss about that?.
Did you want me to call on potential attackers to hit
the State House? Be real with your self, Batch.
tried,
as much as you could, to portray me as an insensible
hardcore saddist
who
was not prepared to take cognisance of the brutal
mutilation of those
young
and innocent soldiers. You are worse than an
insensible sadist in this case. I don't know when you
started viewing them as "young and innocent soldiers".

Sam, people in positions of authority, like you were,
must never see
themselves as ordinary people. Your words are not also
ordinary and
meaningless. You must understand that your every word
carries weight
and
authority to the ordinary mind, and can invoke passive
influence,
especially
if they are not enlightening words. What enlightening
word? Wild statements again. Get to the specifics;
hammer that in your confused head..

Secondly, it is needless for me the "nonentity", to
tell you that it
is a
basic tenet of natural justice that an accused person
must be presumed
innocent until proven guilty. Please read yourself
again, and see how
you
expressed being guided by no other thing than mere
emotions and
sentiments.
What if you had paraded these "mercenaries" before a
court of law only
for
them to be acquitted and discharged?
You see how presumptuous you ended your lecture on
what the basic tenant of natural justice means? Even
elementary school going kids understand that clause of
the law. Where did I express being guided by no other
than mere emotions and sentiment? I can't even make
sense of what you were trying to say here. Could you
clarify next time? Of course I'll be waiting for the
next set of lies.
Then you fired your irrelevant question of-"what if
you had paraded these mercenaries before a court of
law only for them to be acquitted and discharged?"
Here you showed your transparent wishful sentiments.
With the confidence and guts you are trying to project
around, tell me about definitive conclusions and not
speculative ones. The cases of those killers were not
a matter of whether or not when they were caught on
the actual act.
Where were you at that time not to raise your concerns
loud and clear? Or were you still the meaningless
Samba Linguire we are hearing from now? Or were you
sitting somewhere in a hidden corner theorizing to
your disciples over the lies you had fabricated about
the event?

Sam, your position is a clear manifestation of how
intolerant to
Justice you
are. This is an invariable characteristic of tyrants
who hold justice
in
contempt. Such people, like you, only believe in the
might at their
disposal. You accuse Jammeh of being a tyrant and
being insensitive to
the
rule of law, but you never sit down, for a moment, to
reflect on your
everyday actions to measure your own credentials.
People like you are
only
interested in drowning the senses of the ordinary
person in a sea of
passion, full stop.
Sweeping statements again coated in high-sounding
words that mean nothing. Were you a Marxist?

In your usual and dishonest attempt to befog the
issue, you wrote
"These
were the mercenaries being termed humbled now. It is
very likely that
this
chap, like his kinds, had jubilated over the death of
those innocent
soldiers for no reason other than the fact that they
were Gambians who
looked too pompous and arrogant to him."
What can I say?  You started your nonsense with me,
calling me pompous and arrogant when you don't know
what was in my mind that day. So if you go further to
express your sympathy to those who killed men under my
care without further explaining your callous attitude,
I have all right to search for the most logical reason
from you, which is in my book hate. And the best way
you expressed that was not by seeing me as not hurt
and offended by the tragedy but by being arrogant and
pompous.
Your tendency to misinterpret and twist facts to suit
your own
situation has
again surfaced here. You have the natural orgy to
always want to move a
step
ahead by making wrong inferences and drawing wrong
conclusions aimed at
broadening the scope of the subject matter to create
the most positive
impression of yourself. You are so pathologically
inclined to
exaggerating
everything that surrounds you to the extent that you
have unconsciously
distorted your mannerisms and the way you walk just to
achieve this
state of
esctacy and self satisfaction.

Have I mentioned anywhere before that these innocent
soldiers were
pompous
and arrogant? This charge was/is still specifically
directed at you,
and by
your very response you have nakedly exposed yourself
to be even more
arrogant and less intelligent than I had thought.

I knew Saidy very well. In fact you will be surprise
to know that I
knew him
so well. What a shy and humble character he was. I had
a personal
social
relationship with not only him but his family at
Jeshwang. How will I
be
happy with the senseless killing of such a young,
innocent and
exuberant
person. A wasted life! It's interesting the way you
become political here. Are you a politician? Trying to
cover your insensitive remarks now, eh? My friend it
was not Saidy alone, but six good men who feared god
and worked hard to keep up their families. They had
never hurt a fly much more a person. And they were
serving the nation with total loyalty.

You then went further to write a long and whining
expose, all meant to
create the impression that you were the brain child
and best tactician
of
the army. I am, however, not impressed by it because,
in practical
terms,
you were right there among the top brass of the armed
forces when less
than
a dozen ill-armed bandits attacked and took over the
Farafenni camp for
some
hours. I will be very bold to hold you, and the entire
state machinery,
responsible for the death of all those young soldiers,
and you will one
day
stand to answer these charges. Your inefficiency, your
lack of a
coordinated
master-plan, your lethargy and your ever growing
conspicuous
consumption
habits are what led to that brutal and surprise
attack. Your whole
objective
is to detach yourself from the responsibility; but
history shall indict
you.
Try the archives of the G-L and you will see what I
wrote about the Farafenni attack few months ago  in
two episodes. That will help you to cancel another lie
in your hollow mind. But with the dishonest person I
see in you, I am sure you have even read that. After
all you seem to be echoing the very sentiments I
concluded that narrative with.
It's unfortunate, but your limitation in coming up
with original ideas of your own even when fabricating
your habitual lies leaves Batch with no specifics.
What can you tell anybody realistically original to
indict any one of us on anything about that attack?
Now the mercenaries' case in which you just gave me a
long lecture about how natural justice work on people
presumed innocent until found guilty; the men you said
with sentiments "What if they were proven innocent in
a court of law", have now, in your book, become
criminals whose crimes should warrant my indictment.
Because I failed in my duty as commander. Can you see
how funny your mind works turkey? This is you,
twisting facts with, exaggerations here and there just
to hit a home run. I can swear that you are a
faithless politician.

It is only now that real military thoughts and tactics
are dawning into
your
hollow head again, but those days when you rode high
and alone in an
aura of
a "mansa", your only thoughts were how to increase
your fill and your
privileges. You were comfortably chauffeur-driven in
one of the most
expensive pajeros of the state, guided by some of the
most experienced
guards, feared by the majority of people because of
your arrogance and
your
tendency to react to situations, even where it is
unwarranted.
 The
state
could not check you because you were part of the
state, just like Baba
Jobe
is behaving now. And yet you have the audacity and the
insincerity to
spell
doom on that very baby you helped to nurture. What a
shame!! You are
nothing
but a spineless opportunist, full stop.
There you go again with your shameless lies. Did you
ever see me with guards? Name one place where you saw
me being driven around with guards. And apart from
ceremonial duties where it was a SOP for me to be
driven by a chauffeur, I had always driven myself. Do
you forget how small the country is? How people of my
position acted or interacted with the small Gambian
community was common knowledge to all. So shoot a lie
about where you ever saw me being driven and protected
by the most experienced guards. Who were the most
experienced guards?. Or was that just an exaggerated
lie. You don't know how the GNA personnel are
classified; yet here you are deceiving people to think
that you even know the most experienced ones and the
ones who were not? You ungodly wimp.

Your opposition to Jammeh and Baboucarr Jatta, in
particular, is not
based
on any genuine and sincere grounds. You are opposed to
these few
personalities not because of what they stand for but
because of who
they
are. Sam, I dare say it loud and clear that you are
opposed to Jammeh
and
Jatta because of tribal reasons. They are Jolas, and
you cannot still
reconcile yourself to this fact. It is not only you.
So many people are
still infected with this sickness. Your anti-Jola
campaign is not only
a
repeat of the old colonial tactic of weakening
national unity by
encouraging
ethnic divisions, but a deliberate and calculated
tactic to plunge the
country into an unprecedented tribal rivalry and
elimination.

In fact this is the very reason why you choose to use
EBOU COLLEY as a
pseudonym in order to mask your tribal sentiments, not
knowing that
whilst
you may succeed in sneaking and hiding your face into
the hole, your
buttocks is so nakedly exposed to the outside world
that even toddlers
can
see it.
This is one of my favorite parts. Accusing me of
tribalism, a colonial stigma you think is deeply
instilled in some Gambian's minds like mine. After
saying nothing to defend your foolishness again, you
finally brought in the pen name Ebou Colly that I have
been using ever since. So you think I am trying to
hide while my buttocks is in the open? Now let me tell
you again about specifics you can verify from other
living Gambians. You see while we were in jail in
1994, we realized that all the detainees were
non-Jolas, and worst of all the guards were all under
the supervision of senior Jola officers with David
Colly being their head. We also learnt that confused
people like you were going around the country selling
crap about the reason for our detention. You were the
very people lying all over the country that there was
a power struggle at the state house, something you
dangerously sold as normal in coup situations-which
led to those with the upper hand taking control over
the weaker ones. Could yor recall your lies on our
detention?
As a result we the detainees decided to organize a
writing group that started writing stories for
publication outside to help us gain our freedom.. Ask
Sheriff Giomez, Chogan, Press Jagne, Mamat Cham, to
name a few, how we adopted this name Ebou Colly in
consensus for our publication. With this name Ebou
Colly we had sent published articles to the
independent press and even to BBC world service. But
Sa
--- Samba Linguere <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Dear Samsudeen,
>
> Thank you very much for your response to my
> accusations of arrogance and
> pomposity that you displayed when you were still the
> Army Commander of the
> Gambia National Army. It is a very welcome and
> courageous gesture, on your
> part, to take up the challenge to defend yourself.
> This is what we need. If
> all Gambians in positions of responsibility are
> prepared to be taken to task
> to answer to their words and deeds whilst in
> positions of authority, Gambia
> will be able to build a very mature, dignified and
> informed citizenry who
> can never be fooled or taken for granted by any
> person or group of persons.
>
> I have, however, never hoped that our debate will
> extend so much beyond
> rhetorics to the point where you use angry
> invectives and witticisms only to
> try to confuse and befog the fundamental issues that
> I raised.
>
> Sam, I had never intended to go this far with you
> because of two
> considerations. Firstly, in spite of our differences
> I still held you in
> high esteem as a "koto". And secondly, and most
> importantly, I have always
> had the opinion and belief that at this critical
> moment of our history when
> the dignity and conscience of our nation are
> everyday continuously being
> trampled upon and compromised by the actions of
> those at the helm, it
> behoves all its citizens to create a forum of
> discourse where our common
> interest will be discussed and a clear path paved
> for the future.
>
> However, hence you have decided to blow the whistle
> for a rough race, I have
> no alternative but to take up the challenge with you
> to the end.
>
> It is, of course, unfortunate that the time that
> should have been spent
> discussing other productive and more pertinent
> issues will now be spent in
> refuting allegations and justifying one's actions.
>
> Sam, I must admit that the language that you used in
> your exposition is not
> the type of language that I expected from an astute
> intellectual and a
> seasoned military heavyweight of your calibre. You
> have used all sorts of
> adjectives ranging "meaningless creatures" to
> "nonentities". I do not feel
> offended in anyway. I only wonder how you would have
> perceived me had I
> described you as one of the cheapest intellectual
> whores ever in Gambian
> history, who after being used by the "moron" and
> dumped, is so filled with
> rage and frustration that he is beginning to lose
> all his senses of
> direction. Of course, you would have classified me
> as somebody who hates
> you, and who is only interested in tarnishing your
> records. I will
> definitely not stoop so low like you.
>
> When I first took issue with you, my central point
> of emphasis was two-fold
> - one, the way and manner in which you went about
> mystifying the so-called
> "impregnable" fortress of State House where your
> biggest demon still hides;
> and secondly the brutality that the captured
> "mercenaries" were subjected to
> by having their hands handcuffed together at their
> backs, and the signs of
> merciless torture that was so naked on their bodies.
> Of course, you tried,
> as much as you could, to portray me as an insensible
> hardcore saddist who
> was not prepared to take cognisance of the brutal
> mutilation of those young
> and innocent soldiers.
>
> Sam, people in positions of authority, like you
> were, must never see
> themselves as ordinary people. Your words are not
> also ordinary and
> meaningless. You must understand that your every
> word carries weight and
> authority to the ordinary mind, and can invoke
> passive influence, especially
> if they are not enlightening words. This was the
> crux of my argument.
>
> Secondly, it is needless for m,e the "nonentity", to
> tell you that it is a
> basic tenet of natural justice that an accused
> person must be presumed
> innocent until proven guilty. Please read yourself
> again, and see how you
> expressed being guided by no other thing than mere
> emotions and sentiments.
> What if you had paraded these "mercenaries" before a
> court of law only for
> them to be acquitted and discharged?
>
> Sam, your position is a clear manifestation of how
> intolerant to justice you
> are. This is an invariable characteristic of tyrants
> who hold justice in
> contempt. Such people, like you, only believe in the
> might at their
> disposal. You accuse Jammeh of being a tyrant and
> being insensitive to the
> rule of law, but you never sit down, for a moment,
> to reflect on your
> everyday actions to measure your own credentials.
> People like you are only
> interested in drowning the senses of the ordinary
> person in a sea of
> passion, full stop.
>
> In your usual and dishonest attempt to befog the
> issue, you wrote "These
> were the mercenaries being termed humbled now. It is
> very likely that this
> chap, like his kinds, had jubilated over the death
> of those innocent
> soldiers for no reason other than the fact that they
> were Gambians who
> looked too pompous and arrogant to him."
>
> Your tendency to misinterpret and twist facts to
> suit your own situation has
> again surfaced here. You have the natural orgy to
> always want to move a step
> ahead by making wrong inferences and drawing wrong
> conclusions aimed at
> broadening the scope of the subject matter to create
> the most positive
> impression of yourself. You are so pathologically
> inclined to exaggerating
> everything that surrounds you to the extent that you
> have unconsciously
> distorted your mannerisms and the way you walk just
> to achieve this state of
> esctacy and self satisfaction.
>
> Have I mentioned anywhere before that these innocent
> soldiers were pompous
> and arrogant? This charge was/is still specifically
> directed at you, and by
> your very response you have nakedly exposed yourself
> to be even more
> arrogant and less intelligent than I had thought.
>
> I knew Saidy very well. In fact you will be surprise
> to know that I knew him
> so well. What a shy and humble character he was. I
> had a personal social
> relationship with not only him but his family at
> Jeshwang. How will I be
> happy with the senseless killing of such a young,
> innocent and exuberant
> person. A wasted life!
>
> You then went further to write a long and whining
> expose, all meant to
> create the impression that you were the brain child
> and best tactician of
> the army. I am, however, not impressed by it
> because, in practical terms,
> you were right there among the top brass of the
> armed forces when less than
> a dozen ill-armed bandits attacked and took over the
> Farafenni camp for some
> hours. I will be very bold to hold you, and the
> entire state machinery,
> responsible for the death of all those young
> soldiers, and you will one day
> stand to answer these charges. Your inefficiency,
> your lack of a coordinated
> master-plan, your lethargy and your ever growing
> conspicuous consumption
> habits are what led to that brutal and surprise
> attack. Your whole objective
> is to detach yourself from the responsibility; but
> history shall indict you.
>
> It is only now that real military thoughts and
> tactics
=== message truncated ===


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