For about an hour on Good Friday afternoon, 25-year-old Noah Green, the perpetrator of a lethal attack on the nation's Capitol, found himself the day's designated white supremacist.

Once the truth emerged that Green was, in fact, not only black, but also an ardent supporter of Nation of Islam honcho Louis Farrakhan, one could all but hear the sound of tweets being deleted across America.

The late Mr. Green was in good company.  Perhaps the most celebrated FOF, Friend of Farrakhan, was that guy who lived in Calypso Louie's Chicago neighborhood, Barack Obama.  The fact that Obama participated in Farrakhan's 1995 "Million Man March" caused minor problems in the 2008 presidential campaign.

Obama, however, would have had major problems had not one particular journalist come to his aid, unapologetically at that.  The helpmate in question was photographer and occasional National Public Radio (NPR) commentator Askia Muhammad.

In January 2018, as a way of promoting his new book, Muhammad shared with the world a photo he had taken in 2005 at a Black Congressional Caucus event.  In the center of the photo is a smiling Barack Obama.  Standing right next to him, also smiling broadly, is Farrakhan. Sensing what might generously be called "bad optics," a Black Caucus member stopped Muhammad even before he left the building.

File photo: Louis Farrakhan in 2002

Photo credit: Jim Wallace, Smithsonian

"I gave the picture up at the time and basically swore secrecy," Muhammad admitted thirteen years later.  "But after the nomination was secured and all the way up until the inauguration; then for eight years after he was President, it was kept under cover."

When asked whether he thought the photo, if revealed, would have made a difference in the 2008 campaign, Muhammad said emphatically, "It absolutely would have made a difference."

He was right.  Even CNN would have had a hard time explaining Obama's cozy relationship with a man who, among other offenses, casually referred to Jews as "termites" and to Judaism as "the synagogue of Satan."

Jack Cashill's latest book, Barack Obama's Promised Land: Deplorables Need Not Apply, is now on pre-sale.  His recent book, Unmasking Obama: The Fight to Tell the True Story of a Failed Presidency, is widely available.  See www.cashill.com for more information.

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