The Gloria Newman-Smart Saga

Statement read by Dr. Sylvia rt Olayinka Blyden at the Press Conference
called
on October 11th 2005 in Sierra Leone about the death of Gloria Newman
Smart
By Dr. Sylvia Blyden
Oct 12, 2005, 19:48

Ladies & Gentlemen
Thank you for coming here today. Let me start by introducing myself to

those of you who might not know me. My name is Dr. Sylvia Olayinka
Blyden.
I am a Sierra Leonean by birth and I consider myself a brave patriot
who
can take risks to highlight injustices. I am a trained medical doctor
with
two degrees in medicine and several certificates in medicine. However,
I am
now a businesswoman with a predominant focus on the provision of
various
forms of Internet Consultancies.
I have worked all over West Africa providing Internet Consultancies to

Presidents, Governments NGOs and Commercial entities. One of the
services
that I have provided in Nigeria, Gambia, Senegal and lately in Sierra
Leone
is assisting the authorities to trace conmen and dubious characters on
the
Internet. Please take a look at the attached document which is a report
by
the Sierra Leone Web of December 2002. This report expla ins in detail
the
role that I played during the days of Keith Biddle in helping the CID
and
the Office of the President to trace and catch some Nigerian 419
artists
who believed that they were anonymously sending out scam emails.
Brothers and sisters, many people believe that the Internet is an
anonymous
place whereby you can simply sign up a free hotmail and/or yahoo email

address and send out emails without being found out. Let me assure them

today that they are sadly mistaken. All e-mails and all correspondence
and
all activities conducted on the Internet can be traced. There are many

levels of methods of doing this and there are many tools available for

tracing the origin of any e-mail.
One of the most basic of such methods is by identifying the Internet
Protocol (IP) number of the computer or the connection from which the
email
is sent. In summary, an IP number is a unique identifier that can help

professional internet cons ultants to identify the origins of an
email.
Now, having given this background, let me now come to the issue of why
I
invited you all here today.
On September 23rd, editors of several newspapers in Sierra Leone were
sent
an email ostensibly from someone named ’mohamed sesay’ who gave the
impression that he was sending out emails from London as he attached to

these emails, correspondences from London sent to Gloria Newman Smart.
The
emails were sent to the following newshouses: SLENA NEWS, POOL
NEWSPAPER,
THE NEW, AWOKO, AWARENESS TIMES, CONCORD TIMES and SALONE TIMES.
I am attaching to this statement, copies of both the emails ’mohamed
sesay"
sent together with the correspondences he sent to us all. In the
correspondences, he makes malicious and unsubstantiated allegations
that
the prices of passports were doubled because Gloria Newman Smart was
raising money to pay off her debts in London. This is again designed to

give the impre ssion that the writer does not live in Sierra Leone as
most
Sierra Leoneans know the procedures by which passport fees are
doubled.
Please take a close look at the two emails I have printed out for you.
I
have printed out the emails with the full list of what is known in
Internet
terms as the "Headers" of the emails. In these headers are a list of
numbers and letters that make no sense to the layman but which can be
effectively translated by professional Internet tracers. Not to
complicate
your mind, I just wish to draw your attention to a highlighted line in

those emails which state:
X-Originating-IP: [213.255.224.34]
This line is giving the IP number of the Internet Connection used by
the
person who sent this email and this Internet Connection ladies and
gentlemen is not one based in England at all, at all.
Ladies and Gentlemen, it will shock and probably disgust you to learn
that
those emails sent to local editors in Sierra Le one with the author
giving
the impression that he was in London, were actually sent out right from

INSIDE Sierra Leone.
Ladies and gentlemen, those correspondences you have in your hand right
at
this moment were taken from the home of Gloria Newman Smart. They were

taken from her home during the search by personnel from the Anti
Corruption
Commission when they ransacked her home and carted off boxes upon boxes
of
her personal and private life off to the Anti Corruption Commission.
Ladies and gentlemen, we all agree and know that the Anti Corruption
Commission has the right to invade any of us at any time and collect
any
material from us and use as they deem fit. What we also know most
certainly
to be true is that our privacy during such exercises is sacred.
I now wish to reveal that the IP number of 213.255.224.34 belongs to an

Internet Service Provider in Nigeria with the name of DIRECTONPC and
the
address of
address: IPlot B, Block I Ilupelu Industrial Avenue, lupeju
address: Lagos
address: Nigeria
phone: +2348037758234
phone: +234177374004
e-mail: Manoj@directonpc.com
We understand that DirectonPC is the provider of Internet Services to
the
Sierra Leone based QuantumNet Internet Service Provider which provides

Internet Service to the Anti Corruption Commission in Sierra Leone.
What this means is that the email sent to all editors in Sierra Leone
giving the impression that it came from London came from right here in

Sierra Leone and in all probability from the Anti Corruption Commission

because, who else in Sierra Leone ransacked Gloria Newman Smart’s house
and
collected her private materials from her home? It is also no
co-incidence
that the email was sent from the same Internet Service Provider used by
the
Anti Corruption Commission.
Ladies and Gentlemen, I have already held discussions with the Mr.
Hazeley,
the IT Manager at the Anti Corrupti on Commission yesterday during
which I
have made these revelations known to him. He is shocked and dismayed
and
has promised to investigate further. However, keeping in light the fact

that Gloria Newman Smart died of a broken heart shortly after these
correspondences were released, I think the public through the Press
deserves to know where we currently stand.
I have written a letter to the British High Commission asking in my
capacity as a Sierra Leonean citizen for Her Majesty’s Government to
investigate the origins of those emails. Several editors including
Concord
Times and Awareness Times still have these emails in our mailboxes and
we
are ready to co-operate with the investigations by a British
Technological
company. We believe that in light of such serious allegations and given
the
amount of cash expended by the British to set up and maintain the Anti

Corruption Commission, it is the least that the British can do.
We need to ascertain who inside the Anti Corruption Commission sent out

those emails and why. Obviously the person lacks integrity and has no
business being at such an august body.
I am also going to call for the immediate resignation of Andrew Felton
and
probably even Valentine Collier from the Anti Corruption Commission so
that
someone who is not going to oversee malicious acts and who will attain

admirable success can take over at the helm of the Anti Corruption
Commission.
I am fully well aware that by making such a call, I am putting myself
in
the direct line of some very powerful forces. But in the name of the
late
Gloria Newman Smart, I think our country deserves better and I am ready
to
take the risk.
I realize that many people will have questions and I stand ready to
answer
such questions.
May God Guide and protect Us All.

Photo: The late Gloria Newman-Smart.