News that World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has finally agreed to step down should be no news - because even before now that was to be expected of a decent man who made a fatal error of judgement. But he stuck to his guns thinking that backing by the Bush administration would save him. Even Mr Bush knows that there is a limit to how far and how long you can back an erring friend.

That there is a limit to what you can do in the face of the world saying that Wolfowitz as head of a key international finance organisation like the World Bank and its associated organs should be seen to be clean and not engaging in such silly and serious betrayal of his position. Why he waited this long can best be explained by himself later, but one would guess that having lost the support of his most senior colleagues, it was just a matter of time.

This should send a message to the Blair government that rhetoric alone is not and will never be enough in bringing the corrupt in Sierra Leone to book. As we had stated before, what Sierra Leoneans are looking forward to is not just the mere withholding of funds to the Anti Corruption Commission, but a Chiluba-style trial for the suspected top members of the corruption cabal in Sierra Leone.
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ANTHONY CHARLES LYNTON BLAIR BIDS FAREWELL AS LEADER OF LABOUR PARTY ..... we say goodbye and welcome to the man whose military intervention put paid to the atrocities of our tormentors, the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known as the beasts.

Yes, they now pretend to like him. The supporters of the beasts who are now enjoying the benefits of not only a war-free Sierra Leone, but are actually within the borders of the United Kingdom enjoying the benefits of democracy, the respect for law and order and above all, accountability and a sense of fair play for all. Yes, they walk the streets, roads and bye-ways and alleyways of the capital London and elsewhere without any AK-47-wielding, machete-equipped drug-infused zombies created out of boys and girls, our children who were never given a chance to enjoy their childhood nor their rights as children. Remember those websites set up their mammy queen, the so-called internet expert Sylvia Blyden, daughter of Babatunde Blyden?These and other channels were used to deter any idea of a new Labour government that had just come into office in 1997 intervening in the crisis to stop the murderers, rapists and looters. All manner of organisations were set up, ostensibly to call for a "democratic solution", but which in reality was a front for keeping the murderous Johnny Paul Koroma/Foday Sankoh junta in power. Do you remember Gibril Gbanabome's article in the junta news outlet named "Expo Times" and that obscene title "K....G....F....F....?...and this even when he was enjoying the benefits of democracy and the rule of law in Canada at the expense of the tax payers of that country long after his masters had been kicked out?
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10 Downing Street

Picture Gallery

How a grateful Sierra Leonean shows his appreciation

KENYA MOURNS WITH OTHER COUNTRIES AFFECTED AS CRASH SITE SAYS IT ALL - NO SURVIVORS
It's now official and it could not be more grisly as after more than thirty six hours salvagers get to the crash site of the Kenya Airways Boeing 737-800 plane that crashed on Saturday soon after taking off from Cameroon's Douala International airport. All 114 souls on board are now confirmed dead and the BBC's Noel Makwugu reporting from the crash site says the best the salvage and retrieval team could do was put human parts in body bags amid the stench of already-decaying human flesh.

Another BBC reporter in Cameroon Randy Jo Saah reports that the ubiquitous black box flight recorder has been found and this should give investigators a clue as what happened in the final minutes of Kenya Airways flight 507.

Although it is yet early days, reports from a number of sources indicate that contact with the plane was lost in less than fifteen minutes after take-off in conditions that could be described as "slightly stormy" but not bad enough to prevent a successful take-off. In fact the plane had been delayed for about an hour  because of foul weather conditions and was cleared to proceed on its final leg to Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta airport because both ground controllers and air crew were convinced that there was no danger.

Events were later to prove everyone wrong with dire consequences.

KENYA'S DAILY NATION NEWSPAPER

THE BBC STORY

THE CNN TAKE

CHINA DAILY

THE WHEELS OF JUSTICE MAY APPEAR TO MOVE SLOWLY, TOO SLOWLY BUT SHE GETS THERE AS CHILUBA IS FOUND GUILTY OF THEFT BY LONDON COURT

This court ruling must be welcomed by all who mean well for their country and who are keen to see justice done. Even as Hillary Benn, the UK Development minister heaped praises on the court's ruling, we hope that he doesn't stop at that, but will turn the spotlight on government and other functionaries in the mother country, Sierra Leone who continue to believe that the people and their resources are there for the taking with gross impunity.

We hope that the Blair government will, this time round, take a positive position that will see an end to stealing with impunity in Sierra Leone as well as ensuring that those who stole from the people are brought to book.

We're now beyond the rhetoric stage and should now see action on behalf of the trodden masses.

This investigation which appears to have been taken on behalf of the people of Zambia and so heartily welcomed by UK Development minister Hillary Benn has been largely welcomed by the people of Sierra Leone who long for the day when such action will be brought against the Tejan Kabbah government and all those acting on behalf of that government.

We trust that the Blair government will this time be ready to hold the Kabbah government to account for the resources of a country which given what Sierra Leone is blessed with, need not be what it is at present with the people living from one hour to the next not knowing where the next square meal will come from.....Condemned to death because they just cannot afford the inhuman charges levied by vultures of every shape and description feeding on the misery of the poor. The proliferation of "pharmacies" and potent drugs dispensation outlets demonstrates all too clearly the willingness of the heartless to make money off the corpses of the poor.

Recent action by the International Development Department cutting off aid to the Anti Corruption Commission shows in stark reality that the Tejan Kabbah government is not serious about tackling corruption and that this disease has been actively encouraged by him as Head of State. His determination to reward people who have in the past proven to be corrupt much to the consternation of concerned Sierra Leoneans show President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah's contempt for accountability, the fight against corruption and the wishes of the people that all those in positions of trust account for their stewardship.

We now call for a Chiluba-like investigation into the Tejan Kabbah administration.

BBC take
The London Guardian
...and how ex-President Chiluba suited and looted
......and Serious Fraud Office to investigate law firms

WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2007

The world is once again, today May 3, 2007 observing World Press Freedom Day, a special day set aside by those who are concerned about the free flow of information and the safety and well-being of practitioners, journalists we mean. On this day, all those concerned with the rights of people to be informed about what affects them in all spheres of life by journalists who are to be allowed to carry out their work in peace and safety must be made a priority for all freedom-loving peoples all over the world.

On this day, we remember all journalists who find themselves in situations where they are not allowed to carry out their work in safety and without threats.

On this day we remember BBC journalist Alan Johnston who is still being held by kidnappers in Gaza and pray that he will soon be released.

Today May 3, World Press Freedom Day we would once again want to remind the world about the dangers of those who in their hey days launched were part and parcel of brutal and press-repressing regimes, hunting colleagues who they considered enemies.

On this day nearly 10 years ago, we remember the horrendous and dangerous atmosphere created for journalists by the Johnny Paul Koroma/Foday Sankoh alliance under the jackboots of the AFRC.

We also cannot forget the role of journalists who used their influence with the junta to punish others who were not in line with the repressive junta as Kelvin Lewis, Winston Ojukutu-Macauley and others found out when they went out to cover the August 18, 1997 protests against junta rule.

We once again call on the international community and more especially the authorities and press houses in the United Kingdom and Canada to carefully investigate the past of "journalists" like Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw now living in Bristol, the UK and Gibril Gbanabom Koroma in Canada who between May 1997 and February 1998 used their influence with the murderous and repressive AFRC/RUF junta to launch reprisals against colleagues who were believed to have been critical of the junta.

We call on the Exiled Journalists Network (EJN) to immediately carry out an investigation into his past with a view to getting a proper account of his role in the repression of journalists during this period.

LONG LIVE PRESS FREEDOM    LONG LIVE FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION  LONG LIVE FREEDOM OF INFORMATION

JUST IN - TRANSCRIPT OF A PRESS SESSION WITH THE SPECIAL COURT IN MONROVIA
A high level delegation from the Special Court for Sierra Leone (SCSL) led by Acting Registrar Herman von Hebel, was in the Liberian capital Monrovia recently where it met with government officials, civil society members and a cross section of the Liberian community. Even before that visit some sections of the press in that country were waving every manner of conspiratorial flags of convenience ranging from allegations that the court cannot still come up with enough evidence to nail former warlord turned President, Charles Taylor to one informing readers that the court was engaged in the under-the-table tactics of kidnapping people thought to have key evidence that would put Charles Taylor away for a long time. Charles Taylor's trial proper begins in June and in the meantime he is held in the prison facilities of the International Criminal Court in the Hague. He was moved from the cells in Freetown because of security fears. Well the Special Court officials, on the 25th of this month during their visit met with the press. The press was allowed to ask any and every question that came to mind. This is what happened. MORE

APRIL 27, 2007 - 46 YEARS ON AFTER INDEPENDENCE.....

We congratulate each and every Sierra Leonean within and without the borders of Sierra Leone as well as non-citizens who mean well for Sierra Leone. We have special praise for those ordinary folks who do not have the right connections wired in them, but when the time came rose up in defence for their right and braving the guns of their tormentors said a big "no" to those who had put them under the yoke.

We give praise to the surviving victims of beasts in human forms who raped, murdered and tortured all those who crossed their path praying that the Good Lord will grant the deceased eternal bliss in His arms and that those who still bear the scars of their torment will one day be comforted by a Head of State who appreciates the fact that had they not stood up to the beasts, President Kabbah and his cronies would have by now become a chapter in history.

And as we celebrate independence day today, April 27, we pray that the Good Lord will reward President Kabbah for his parting slap of ingratitude at those who stood up to the beasts as he honours advocates of the beasts who during those trying times were busy campaigning for the murderers, child abusers and rapists to stay on.....moving from one point to the other as templates for websites are altered and modified to feed the ego of the beasts, thus giving the oxygen of publicity to the beasts as they unleashed whole-scale terror on a captive civilian population.

We give our greatest respects to the victims of successive corrupt and uncaring governments. We say congratulations to the ordinary Sierra Leonean who cannot help but live from day to day, not knowing where tomorrow's square meal comes, who finds himself on death row because he cannot afford the cut-throat health service delivery(?) system.

LONG LIVE THE MOTHER COUNTRY !!!!!!!!! LONG LIVE TRUE SIERRA LEONEANS!!!!!!!!!!!

THE SHAME OF IT ALL - WHY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT CEASED FUNDING FOR ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION
The UK government has finally published the findings that made the Blair government decide that it could no longer use the British tax payers money to fund what has now become a charade and a shield for the corrupt as Prof. Joko-Smart sweats over an embarrassment that will haunt him for years to come.

And President Kabbah who had developed the mantra "It was I who decided to set up the Anti Corruption Commission because of my worries....." would be wondering how he allowed such a worthy body to collapse - assuming he still has something of what we call "that straw of statesmanship" left in him, who if he had his way would have included Foday Sankoh and Johnny Paul Koroma in this year's "dishonourable" list. (Profound apologies all round for deserving citizens and non-citizens who found themselves bundled with beasts in human form in President Kabbah's sick joke.) But that's another story.
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APRIL 12, 2007
They may be rivals in the field of international news coverage and would go all out to ensure that, in a clean and healthy manner, get there first to tell viewers and listeners that they were the first. However despite this, three giants of international TV news coverage put aside this rivalry and with one voice have called for the release of missing BBC Gaza reporter, Alan Johnston. This is what it should be, this is what decency is all about when a colleague is in danger.

This is journalism at its finest. This is what decent people and organisations do, no matter the professional rivalry.

Today's joint action by the BBC, al-Jazeera and Sky News once more demonstrates the duty of care that we owe to each other.

This is true and decent journalism and indeed as BBC Director-General Mark Thompson noted "It is vital for all journalists to be able to report freely and without fear of harassment and intimidation".

The BBC pages relating to appeal for the release of journalist Alan Johnston

Speech by BBC Director General Mark Thompson

Pictures from Trafalgar Square, one of many prominent London sites where Alan's picture and appeal were displayed.

This is a far cry from Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and his newspaper Expo Times during junta rule when he would use his connections within the junta high command to create hell, misery and death for all he perceived to be pro-democrat, pro-Tejan Kabbah or just out of sheer envy. The kind we call "morrkor meeleh" in good old Sierra Leone.

This is a far cry from Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Gibril Gbanabome Koroma who would personally pinpoint anyone they feel is critical of or not in support of their masters in the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil. And just to make sure would be with the armed thugs to finger their man as the stories below show.

And when the murderous hunt was on for BBC journalist Victor Sylver, they went as far as to publish what they called a letter purported to be from a concerned reader fuelling the junta hate and providing an excuse as to why Victor Sylver must be eliminated after the Mabaylla massacre.

And later, Ibrahim Seaga Shaw while feeding fat on his lies in democratic countries and institutions of the West and was challenged did not deny what he did, giving this reason -

I remember publishing a letter from one frustrated civilian whose relative was among those killed by the Nigerian bombs. The reader merely vented his anger at Victor in the letter. I published that letter in keeping with my paper's policy of allowing members of the public to vent out their feelings in the LETTERS column on matters affecting their lives in the spirit of free speech and there was absolutely no malice intended against the person of Victor Sylver, who in any case had, and still has, the right of reply.

And this, at a time when chaos, murder and mayhem was the order of the day, when their so-called reader was the staff of Expo Times who manufactured that letter!!!!!! This at a time when the manhunt was on for journalist and BBC correspondent Victor Sylver!!!

A free press under junta rule? This is what Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Gibril Gbanabome Koroma of Expo Times would want those who don't know them  to believe.

JUNTA FINANCED NEWSPAPER  DISAPPEARS, BEGS AND PLEADS TO BE BACK  (EXPO TIMES ) AS WE AWAIT ALL THE BACK ISSUES DATING FROM 2001. THERE WILL BE NO REST FOR THE EVIL AS IBRAHIM SEAGA SHAW IN DESPERATE MOVES TO COVER TRACKS.

AND HIS STAFF - ARE THEY A PART OF THE GRAND COVER-UP SCHEME? WE HOPE NOT AS WE EXPLORE HOW MUCH THEY ARE PAID FOR MANNING THOSE BUREAUX OR ARE WE STEPPING ON .......

Kindly note that when he was milking institutions from his base in France, Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw called himself President and..... of the Expo Times. In Bristol, the United Kingdom where he has set up another milking machine, he has taken off  "President". Why? We need more answers!!!

There have been in the recent past, frantic efforts by Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and his cohorts to erase all trace of their links with the junta, especially where he personally used his connections with the Johnny Paul AFRC human rights abusers to target journalists.

Now he has quietly begged his way back on the ether sans the back issues up to 2001 when his new benefactors set up the website for him not realising how he used his position to ruthlessly hunt down journalists that were thought to be in opposition or not in line with the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil from May 25 1997 to February 1998 when they were booted out of power.

Indeed as the world commemorates 200 years after that bill outlawing slavery, it is but fitting to bring to the fore once more the activities of a group of people like Ibrahim Seaga Shaw and Gibril Gbanabome Koroma who using their connections with the human rights abusers did everything to help the junta continue the enslavement of the people of Sierra Leone.

One of their victims, journalist David Tam-Baryoh in London recently shared his experiences - a rather unpleasant one we must hasten to add, when he dared to oppose a suggestion by Ibrahim Seaga Shaw at a meeting of the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists, SLAJ, during junta rule - that the organisation must declare its support for the AFRC. MORE

And while trying to get things off the internet, Ibrahim Seaga Shaw has gone as far as to try to obliterate his business connections where he called himself President. Oh yes, the man even had a website advertising his company that was offering web hosting and design services with addresses in Croydon and Bristol. He really believed that his web of deceit would go unnoticed. Oh no. Never.

Time to account Dr Ibrahim Seaga Shaw President and Managing Director, Expo Web Plus. What's going on? Did you let Babtunde Blyden's daughter into this or is it another of your nefarious ways?

Or are you scared, worried and frightened that the British tax payer would want to know why as a businessman you are milking them in the name of one project or the other to protect journalists after what you did to them in 1997?

Have you exhausted all the milking cows of Europe and want to roost here in the United Kingdom?

You will have no rest because among the tax payers in the United Kingdom whose resources you want to set your maws on include - you guessed it - bus conductors!!!!!!

Their taxes are not for the feeding of human rights abusers!!!!! And the question is - how much of the UK taxpayers money is being used to fund the human rights abusers enterprises?

AND WE SAY GOOD THINGS WILL ALWAYS COME OUT OF THE MOTHER COUNTRY
It is refreshing and we daresay good news to know that despite all the unfortunate events that plagued us during that obnoxious war, there are Sierra Leoneans within and without the country who believe in the mother country. Men and women who believe that Sierra Leone will one day rise from the ashes and these noble sons and daughters of the soil, if they could make it, always take the opportunity to visit. To see for themselves what obtains on the ground and do what needs to be done. Now if you are seriously thinking of doing something good, something that would require some form of accommodation, be it for a clinic, dwelling or otherwise - in fact whatever your need that needs some structure on the ground, say somewhere scenic, why not talk to our man Donald on UK mobile 07989 393 716 MORE

"When those who are trained in our noble profession, journalism that is, take a back seat, what do you expect of journalism in the mother country? It gets picked up by opportunistic, self-seeking and criminally-inclined vermin and sewer rats who thinking that it is a free for all art would want to use it in the furtherance of their evil machinations including continued support for our tormentors, the AFRC/RUF coalition of evil otherwise known as the beasts".

WHY WE REFUSE TO BE PUT OFF - SUPPORTERS OF THE BEASTS MUST COME OUT CLEAN

WE SHALL CONTINUE HUNTING THEM UNTIL THE JUNTA SUPPORTERS TELL THE WORLD WHAT THEY DID IN PRIVATE AND IN PUBLIC IN FURTHERING THE AGENDA OF THE AFRC/RUF COALITION OF EVIL OTHERWISE KNOWN AS THE BEASTS -
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