Solo Saine Fires Back At Captain Ebou Jallow  (Unedited)

Stand by what i said Captain; I am a soldier and a damn good one. I am an enlisted Non Commissioned Officer in the US Army with almost 8 years of service in the Infantry. I have attended Infantry Basic training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Primary leadership Development Course at Fort Benning, Geogia and Basic Non Commisioned Officer Course at Fort Benning, Georgia. I am Airborne and Air Assualt qualified, High Risk Environment Persoanl Security Detail Course qualified and Battle staff qualified all these in addition to numerous filed exercises, ranges, gunneries NTC AND JRTC rotations.Here is the killer, i am a bradley master gunner.

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Captain Ebou Jallow Clarifies, Calls Solo Saine’s Allegations Malicious

Dear Editor:

Seriously if you had not published this so called “Solo Saine” insults I would have never respond to it.  I was a Commissioned Officer in The Gambia National Army- basic recruit training, cadet course officer selection process with the British Army Training Team, Officer Candidate School with the then Naval Education and Training Centre, Newport Rhode Island, and finally promoted to the rank of Captain in The Gambia National Army and appointed Commander, 3^rd Marine Company (Gambia Navy now) under Brigadier General Abubacar Dada of the Nigerian Army Training Team.  During the 1994 coup in The Gambia, I was already an Army Captain doing my staff course at the US Naval War College in Newport, RI where I graduated from in from December 1994. 

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By Solo Saine

I have searched for Captain Ebou Jallow's name on the US ARMY database, not even a single name came up for Captain Ebou Jallow. Yet he said he is a member of a special counter terrorism unit of the 101 Airborne Division. Why claim to be something you are not, Captain?  We all know that Captains do not do much of the work anyway. The work is done by the enlisted that are led by the NCO's. The 101 is an active duty army unit out of Fort Campbell, KY.

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Socialism Is A Political Farrago

 By Ebou Jallow, Baghdad, Iraq 

In political discourse it is always important to be vigilant against pretentious diction and Orwellian obfuscation, which are nothing but tools of distortion and categories of linguistic deceit. Democratic socialism and social democracy are all mutants of socialism none of which has ever decisively solved mankind’s economic problems anywhere on planet earth.  Socialism in any form is as dead as Margret Thatcher once dubbed it the “British Disease”. 

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WHY THE RULE OF LAW IN THE GAMBIA?

   By Lamin J. Darbo, UK

Mr Chairman, members of the Executive, the general membership of Gambia United Society (“GUS”), ladies and gentlemen. I am deeply pleased to be accorded the great opportunity of an audience with one of the most successful Gambian organisations in the Diaspora. Congratulations are in order for the visionaries who conceived and delivered a charitable organisation that successfully marries entertainment with serious purpose. For your malaria project alone, the larger Gambian community is in no small measure indebted to the architects of GUS, as well as to all those who continue to support and nurture the organisation in different ways.

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THE GAMBIA’S ECONOMIC TRANSITION IN PERSPECTIVE- PART II

 BY ALASANA J.K NJIE, London, UK

The turn of the 1980s, which saw, countries like Russia and China begin to embrace free market policies albeit in varying degrees; marked a significant turning point in international economics. The result was that two main issues, related at least from the perspective of international development institutions, made it increasingly impossible for us and African countries in general, to maintain not only the status quo of pseudo-social model through ‘unofficial redistribution but also their financing.

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Lamin Darboe of Leicester Says He is Different from Lamin J. Darbo, Suntou Touray Clarifies

Editor:

Please I am not Lamin J. Darboe the eminent Laywer as you surmised. He always sign Lamin J. Darboe and prescribe his lawyer title. I live in Leicester and Lamin J. darboe live in London. His power of language and prose would have more scintillating than the layman style of mine. He is not a man who is ever afraid to reveal identity. Please apologise to him.

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Breaking News:

Lt. Bakary Camara & ASP Manlafi Sanyang Arrested, Taken to Mile II

   By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

According to our unimpeachable State House operative Kissy Kissy Mansa, the longest serving Presidential Guard official, Lieutenant Bakary Camara and Assistant Superintendent of Police Manlafi Sanyang were arrested under heavy military escort and have since been detained behind the harrowing granite walls of Mile II Central Prisons. Says Kissy, Camara’s arrest marks the end of an era in the Presidential Guards, a man who was a presidential orderly since the PPP days.

Lt. Camara is second from right in military uniform

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The Gambia National Investment Board Would Work Better

Under A Socialist System

 BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx, New York

I admire PDOIS’s  Desk Officer, Suwaibou Touray, for his courage and ability to lucidly explain how the principles and policies of PDOIS could transform The Gambia into one of the best democratic socialist states ever to exist in West Africa. If even those that are against our policies were to read Suwaibou’s article without anger, they would be able to digest the whole content. After all, we are talking about democracy, so listening to one another will bring in ideas which can benefit not only those involved in the debate but the entire nation.

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Breaking News: Atlanta APRC Sect. Appointed Protocol Officer

-Brawl Among Guards at President’s Mom’s House

By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In-Chief

According to our most competent and most dependable State House operative Kissy Kissy Mansa, Mr. Sering Nyang, who until last September was the Atlanta based Secretary of the ruling Alliance for Patriotic Reconstruction Party of autocratic President Yahya Jammeh, has been appointed Senior Protocol Officer, office of the President. Reveals Kissy, Nyang’s high profile appointment follows a series of consultations with both Vice President Madam Isatou Njie-Saidy and President Jammeh

THE LATE SERGEANT FAFA NYANG

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The Gambia's Economic Transition In Perspective (Part 1)

 By Alasana J.K. Njie (Pg Dip, BA (Hons.), MBA Finance).

 Hello Editor:

Please allow me space in your widely read newspaper to share this discussion and hopefully stimulate debate about the title of this analysis. The Gambia’s economy has been undergoing a transition, not so much of a radical nature or a paradigm shift but albeit a significant transformation, for which it is inevitable for the effects to be felt on the wider economy as expected. A typical of such effects is the general rises in the price levels otherwise inflation.

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Irrelevant Relics Do Not Write Books

     By Lt. Col. Sheriff Samsudeen Sarr

Dear Editor: On January 10^th. 2008 an article captioned Relics Dying to be Relevant was published by one of the online papers purposely orchestrated to smear my character. The editors should have just given it the most befitting title thus- “Samsudeen Sarr, Relic Dying to be Relevant”, By Editors. That would have been more than enough to complete their hateful agenda than the lousy attempt they had made to hide their motives in the way they did.

LT. COL. SHERIFF SAMSUDEEN SARR

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PDOIS’ Desk Officer Reacts to Mathew K. Jallow’s Final Response

Dear Editor:

I have the obligation to address some issues raised by Mathew in his final response to my comments on his previous remarks. First and foremost, I still cannot digest Mathew’s obsession with Halifa Sallah to the point of asserting that if the coup did not lead to O.J’s fall from grace, he, Halifa, would not have taken the constituency from him for a million years.

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Breaking News: Gambia’s Ex-Foreign Sect. Sidi Sanneh Wins Top US Int’l. Corporate Job

BY EBRIMA G. SANKAREH, Editor-In-Chief

The Gambia’s former Foreign Secretary Mr. Sidi Sanneh has been appointed Program Manager-Contingency and Logistics Division of the Falls Church, Virginia headquartered DynCorp International LLC, a worldly reputable multi-faceted major Defense and State Departments’ security contractor with an annual budget in excess of $2.8billion. As Program Manager-Contingency and Logistics Division, Mr. Sanneh is responsible for managing and directing the operations of this vital arm of DynCorp International LLC.

Sidi M. Sanneh, DynCorp International Program Manager

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Ghana Gov’t Refers Gambia to ECOWAS Over Massacre of 44 Citizens

The government has decided to refer the matter in which more than 40 Ghanaians were killed in The Gambia in July 2005, to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). This was contained in a press release signed by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Ms Oboshie Sai Cofie, and issued in Accra yesterday.

Yahya Jammeh, Gambia's Glorified Boy Scout

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Dakar, Senegal, January 14, 2008

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Gambian Journalists Launch Online Radio

A group of Gambian media practitioners in Dakar, Senegal, and The Gambia have recently launched an online radio that features mainly issues affecting The Gambia. Radio Alternative Voice, found at www.radioavg.com on the World Wide Web, offers programmes in English, Mandinka and Wollof

Journalists Agnes John, Amie Joof, Esperance & VOA's West & Central Africa Correspondent Nicolas Colombant 

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Edward Singhateh In Good Health

 By Ebrima G. Sankareh, Editor-In- Chief

Ever since news of the alleged pummeling and alleged indisposition of erstwhile Forestry Secretary and once Vice Chairman Edward David Singhateh of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council, The Gambia Echo has been inundated with seemingly unabated phone calls from curious Gambians. Well, today we are pleased to report with incontrovertible evidence that Mighty Singhateh as the notorious butcher of Banjul is some times called, is in good health, fit and fine.

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More than nine hundred and ten villages from twelve rural communities in southeastern Senegal converged on Tambacounda Sunday morning declaring an end to Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) as well as early and forced traditional marriages.
 
By Alpha Jallow in Tambacounda, Southern Senegal
 
This is probably the biggest mobilization campaigns against these primitive and often violent cultural practices organized by Tostan, an American Non-Governmental Organization fighting to eradicate violent practices against women in partnership with the United Nations International Children Emergency Fund-UNICEF.

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PDOIS' Desk Officer Closes Chapter On Wariteh And Mathew

Dear Editor:

I am not sure whether Wariteh or Mathew would respond to my postings. However, I will not insist that they do. It is their prerogative to do as they wish.

 I only wish to thank you for your note and to assure you that you have not caused us any inconvenience by publishing divergent views. In fact, you have done us a great favour in doing so. It enables us to put our party’s principles, policies, programmes and practices to the test. This is what Democracy is all about. And we anticipate that we will be subjected to more tests in the future.

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PDOIS: Brainwashing and Fanaticism (Final)

By Mathew K. Jallow 

The responses from PDOIS’s Suwaibou Touray to my comments raised some important questions about that organizations modus operandi. Specifically, I was drawn to a point made by Suwaibou Touray alluding to the role assigned to him to “monitor the media and respond” to all matters concerning PDOIS. This by itself is clearly a manifestation of an obsession with self-image that borders on paranoia, but what was also interesting is the way this was expressed. Besides, their responses to the variety of opinions expressed in

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Conateh And Jammeh:Strange Bedfellows, other Issues

By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

Swaebou Conateh, the doyen of Gambian journalism, a man admired and much respected around the country until now, did something that is as baffling as it is incredible. His nomination of Yahya Jammeh as Gambia’s “Man of the Year,” is clearly an insult to Gambians who are even right now or have in the past suffered at the hands of Yahya Jammeh.My his action, Mr. Conateh is manifesting what appears to be his numbness and insensitivity to the frequent arrests, tortures, and deaths occurring around the country for all these past years. When Time Magazine nominates an

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PDOIS’ Desk Officer's Second Response to Mathew

 Dear Editor:

I had expected that we were headed towards a fruitful intellectual debate with Mathew. However, a glance at Matthew’s response suggests that we are moving from an objective discourse and are sinking into a sentimental one.

Let me inform Mathew that I have been given a role to monitor the media and respond to any matter that is of concern to us. Foroyaa has not attacked him as he is insinuating. Let me explain how the editorial came about which should be instructive to all editors of Newspapers and Foroyaa is no exception.

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Karamba Touray& Lamin Wariteh

Find My Definitions Bizzare

BY TIJAN NIMAGA, Bronx New York

 My recent suggestion that democratic socialism is the system of government that we Gambians should adopt in order to achieve better governance and that the PDOIS is the only political party in the Gambia to establish such an ideology, was quickly shot down in flames by Karamba Touray and Lamin Wariteh in a move that did not altogether surprise me.

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Captain Thomas Sankara’s Children Were Pedalled to School On  Bicycle

We continue the conversation between Thomas Sankara’s Foreign Policy Adviser, Fidèle Kientega, MP, and Bubacarr Sankanu:

Sankanu: You said that Thomas Sankara’s father, Joseph, asked Blaise Campaore to go to him and seek forgiveness. Did Campaore honour this selfless expression of compassion?

Kientega: Campaore did not and this shows that he is not a great man. If it were me, I would have gone to the old man and knelt before him in repentance. Every human being needs to forgive and be forgiven. We all seek forgiveness from God.

 The Late Captain, President Thomas Sankara

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 Dear Editor:

Karamba insisted that he is familiar with PDOIS’ platform and it is left to Gambians to evaluate what is applicable or otherwise in our policies, programmes, and practices. He however expressed his reservation that the totality of PDOIS does not represent the most effective way to build a prosperous forward looking Gambia but did not however state the most effective way of doing so.

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 Dear Editor:

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Suwaibou Touray Responds to Mathew's Support of Karamba & Wariteh's Distortions of PDOIS' Policies

By Suwaibou Touray, PDOIS Desk Officer, People’s Center, Serekunda

I don't know the problem my friend Mathew has with Halifa Sallah. What we expect from a sovereign Gambian citizen is a critical mind capable of discerning the truth. In terms of political leadership every person who appears before us should be subjected to objective scrutiny. Halifa Sallah is no exception. What respectable Gambians expect of Mathew who posed to be an erudite intellectual is to examine Halifa Sallah's words and deeds and then enlighten us on the shortcomings of his concrete words and deeds.

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The Verdict

 Yahya Jammeh & His Corruption Web

By Adama Hawa

Is President Yahya Jammeh corrupt? While the answer to such a question may not be quite obvious to the lay person in the street in Banjul or any other settlement in the country, there are several indications that some of his behaviours and comportments seem to point to him being not only corrupt but also quite easily corruptible.

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Karamba Touray Fires Back At PDOIS; Calls Suwaibou Touray's Reply "Misguided" 

Dear Editor:
My response to Sweabou Touray's lengthy
protestation letter with it's accusatory heading
calling my observations of someonelse's published
opinions of his party ideas as distortions is that his
reactions are misguided. The attempt in his part is to
simultaneously disavow Tijan Nimaga's stipulations
viz-a-viz PDOIS and then insist that my personal viewsof those stated opinions which were published in thispaper amounted to deliberate distortions of his
interpretations of PDOIS philosophy and politics.

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Foroyaa Newspaper Burning Issue

Issue No. 003/2008, 7 – 8 January 2008

Editorial

DIALOGUE BETWEEN A GAMBIAN AND

A CUBAN IMMIGRANT IN THE USA

A Cuban and Gambian immigrant met in a bar in the USA. After having some sips they began to chat. The Cuban immigrant expressed his frustration regarding the quality of life of the ordinary Cuban who has been receiving food ration for decades. He expressed his dream of the day when Cuba will be like the USA with new model cars and other media gadgets to get the latest news from any channel one desires. After he finished his story, he asked the Gambian how long he had been in the US and what brought him there. The Gambia kept quiet for a while not knowing what to say. The Cuban expressed anxiety.

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PDOIS Under Review, Which Party Is Next?
-The Beginning of The End of Distortions by Karamba Touray & Lamin Wariteh.

By Suwaibou Touray-Original PDOIS Member

The piece advanced by Tijan Nimaga is a very interesting one. Apparently, Mr. Nimaga was expressing his opinion on what PDOIS’ policy and programme means to him as an advocate of what he termed as Democratic Socialism. He has his own definition of democratic socialism and gave examples of Sekou Toure's Guinea, Modibo Keita's Mali and Nyerere's Tanzania as his model states.

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United Democratic Party- US Branch, Lambastes Veteran Gambian Journalist Swaebou Conateh for  Dictator Yahya Jammeh's Dubious Award  

January 5, 2008

Re: Awarding Man of The Year, 2007 to President Yahya Jammeh:

We the members of the United Democratic Party {UDP} New York, U.S.A. Branch strongly object to your Magazine’s decision to award a MAN OF THE YEAR, 2007 to President Yahya Jammeh of the Republic of The Gambia.

UDP Leader, Veteran Human Rights Lawyer & Politician Ousainu Darboe

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Professor Abdoulaye Saine Is Echo’s Man of The Year, Lt. Col. Sarr Takes Merit for Endeavor & Sgt. Alhagie Cham Joof Gets Merit for Patriotism

By Ebrima G. Sankareh & Mathew K. Jallow

Following intense debate and profound deliberations, the Editorial & Advisory Board of The Gambia Echo Newspaper is pleased to announce that Gambian born Political Science Professor Dr. Abdoulaye Saine of the Miami University in Oxford Ohio, is the paper’s Man of the year. Interalia, the Editorial Board took in to consideration, Professor Saine’s initiatives and commitment to the advancement of Gambian affairs. “Over the past 13 years, the Board notes, “Dr. Saine has taken initiatives and remains engaged and committed to Gambian socio-economic and political affairs.”

Professor Abdoulaye Saine

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KENYA: A CLASSIC AFRICAN PROBLEM

By Lt. Col. Samsudeen Sarr

It was just over a week ago when I initiated this controversial debate about the decadence of tribal politics in Africa with a special attention to The Gambia. If one could recall I started the paper by underscoring the resemblance of the potential threat tribal politics were about to do to Kenya as the people prepared for their presidential elections. I was really worried about the way the politicians were tapping into the emotions of their voters with no consideration to the imminent danger they were creating for Kenya and Kenyans of all tribes, gender or age group.

By Lt. Colonel Samsudeen Sarr, Ex- Commander GNA

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Editor:

Tijan Nimaga, Dead Wrong

  By Mathew K. Jallow, Associate Editor

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The Gambia And Two Chinas-A Diplomatic Reflection

By Captain Ebou Jallow, Baghdad Iraq

In the summer of 1995, President Jammeh surreptitiously dispatched me on a mission impossible to Taipei, The Republic of China (Taiwan) with unconscionable skepticism from some members of the Armed Forces Provisional Ruling Council (AFPRC) including Jammeh himself.  When I first entertained the issue of Taiwan President Jammeh brushed off the idea with an idealistic notion that the People’s Republic of China was the first major power to recognize the AFPRC and as such he felt obligated to honor their friendship. 

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Tijan Nimaga’s Propaganda-Commentary

By  Mr. Lamin Wariteh, United Kingdom