Fatou Taal I read with interest your correspondence with Ebrima Ceesay, on Gambia-L, and I am compelled to put the records straight for the sake of my integrity, which I jealously guard from the date I became a journalist. I worked very hard, suffered all kinds of treatment in the defence of press freedom at the time Gambians needed their journalists most (1994 to date). So I will not idly sit down and watch a worthless girl like you to tamper with that integrity. Let me start by making it categorically clear to you that I wrote your dad's story in the public interest and without malice. Like Ebrima Cessay rightly put it to you, let me also say it that I last spoke to Ceesay in 1996 and he has nothing whatsoever to do with your dad's story. Ebrima has not telephoned or written a single letter to me since he left The Gambia. However, what I cannot even understand is, why do you have to embark on a fruitless venture of trying to establish who my source is, when as you intimate, the story was untrue! After I published your dad's story, the Daily Observer took it upon itself to come up with a reaction that tends to imply that my story was totally fake. Your dad, and of course some APRC big wigs capitalised on a simple factual error to publish what the Observer printed as a correction. Note that I am not a party to the Observer's so called apology to your father. I would have gone for a clarification. Yes, it maybe correct that your dad had not even travelled to the U.K. I did make several efforts to talk to your dad prior to publication but to no avail. Nonetheless, what is very clear is that the substance of the story was true. If your dad is arguing that his appointment was not rejected by the British authorities on the grounds that he (your dad) is an ex-convict, can he then tell us why he didn't leave for the U.K. since his appointment early this year (it is almost six months since his appointment)! The bottom line is, whether for corruption, embezzlement or stealing, your dad has a record of criminal conviction and this is public knowledge. Peace. Alieu Badara Sowe ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------------