The Pope�s apologies and his position were brought up by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan as analogous to the position he holds within the Nation of Islam. It was from that position that he spoke, in the taped interview, which brought a greater measure of reconciliation. I covered this in my last article. This perspective was agreed to by Sister Shabazz and Mr. Mike Wallace. It paved the way and was an essential part of the context into which he spoke the words, of which CBS showed but a small part.

This was part of the context in which Minister Farrakhan went beyond what most any other innocent person would have gone in that discussion/interview that day, in his effort to bring about reconciliation as he worked to relieve Sister Shabazz, her sisters and others of their pain. Most innocent people would emphasize their innocence and then say this or that. They would make their innocence a prominent part of their statement.

Minister Farrakhan has to be understood in terms of his entire history; his personal make up or character; his world view and how this all was developed. That is beyond the scope of this short article. However, there are two incidents from his past that I hope illuminate the kind of person Minister Farrakhan is, whom CBS so grotesquely misrepresented.

Years ago, a younger and less experienced Minister Farrakhan headed up a congregation of the followers of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad in Boston. Problems developed. Many left and went back to their former lives, which were unworthy of themselves.

Minister Farrakhan brought the problems to his teacher. During the course of the discussion, he asked his teacher if he could take on the sins of the others who left. He wanted to take full responsibility for their sins. Of course, his teacher explained why he could not, but guided him on how to improve that situation.

My point here is that this incident illustrates the kind of heart Minister Farrakhan had then and has now. He is one who is willing to sacrifice himself for the benefit of others.

This incident further shows that he was to be a reconciler; a healer; a redeemer; even at a young age. He does what he does to help others, even at tremendous costs to himself. He will literally hurt himself, if that is the cost he must pay, to help others!

That is what he did that day in his efforts to help Sister Shabazz!

There was another time when he had just arrived at his home. His neighbor saw him and immediately began sharing with Minister Farrakhan his grief. This man had just come from the hospital where his wife had just died in childbirth. The twins she was carrying died too. He was devastated.

As the man was telling Minister Farrakhan of what had just happened to his wife and babies, Minister Farrakhan broke out into a sweat. He took off his neck tie. He then loosened the buttons of his shirt. The Minister then took off his coat.

Minister Farrakhan was identifying so thoroughly with the grief and agony of his neighbor that he was becoming sick. His neighbor left and went into his own home.

By now Minister Farrakhan could not stand up. He had become weak and drained. He literally went down on his hands and knees and crawled up the steps leading to the door of his home. He still could not stand up. He had to crawl to his couch and up on it, as best he could. There he lay until he recovered.

This is the man Mr. Mike Wallace and others of CBS worked to destroy on Sunday, May 14, 2000.

About a week before the videotaping of this significant event, Minister Farrakhan showed me the letter he received from Mr. Mike Wallace. It had just arrived. It�s focus was Mr. Wallace�s view of the great significance of this event and why he (Mike Wallace) wanted to do it. It was clear to me that Mr. Mike Wallace considered this one of the biggest events of his career. I am referring to the videotaping of Sister Shabazz and Minister Farrakhan, with him as part of the discussion.

Whether the CBS persons who are responsible for the misrepresentation of Minister Farrakhan will ever come clean and tell the truth on themselves about their motives�time will tell. But I am convinced that Allah�s hand is over this entire matter. The wicked will not be successful. I expect that they will become openly divided over what they did to an innocent man.

There was not the least hint, on the faces nor in the demeanor, of anyone during the discussion/interview, nor afterwards, that Minister Farrakhan had confessed or admitted to direct involvement in Malcolm�s death. We all would have been stunned if he had made such an admission or anything near to that!

So the persons at CBS who were directly involved in putting together what they wanted the world to see, clearly made a deliberate decision to do the best they could to destroy Minister Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam forever. Their motives were to ruin Minister Farrakhan. Their motives to hurt the Minister�not ratings�are what determined what they chose from that long interview. It seems that this small section, which they chose, may have been the only section which they thought served their motivations.

What they did reveals them as worse than the bombers of that Black church back in December 1963, wherein four little innocent Black girls were slaughtered. They committed a form of murder in their efforts to assassinate the character of Minister Farrakhan. I cannot help but to see them as trying to set Minister Farrakhan up to be murdered.

Their slanderous work provides us again with how such people worked during the time when the dispute raged between Malcolm and the Nation of Islam. Even now most people are yet unaware of the exact sequence of events that led to Malcolm�s departure from his teacher and then finally to his death. Most opinion makers have put before the public outright lies or truth mixed with falsehoods on this matter.

Mr. Mike Wallace was one of the opinion makers who helped shape the heated atmosphere under which Malcolm was killed. In 1959 he launched his first attack against us on TV. He is still at it today�41 years later�as you saw on May 14.

So the producers of "60 Minutes" spewed out on the public lies on Minister Farrakhan, as like-minded persons have always done against Black people, in general, and Black leaders in particular, whom they hate. This is an essential part of America�s history.

It has already been reported that many people felt utter revulsion and contempt for Minister Farrakhan on the basis of the false news spread by CBS before the airing of "60 Minutes" on the 14th of May. How did Minister Farrakhan look in the eyes of tens of millions of people before that program was seen by the world? The atmosphere was further seeded with anti-Minister Farrakhan talk. But, deeper and more important than all of this is: Why did Allah permit this?

So, in Minister Farrakhan�s touching, deeply tender, heartfelt and empathetic expression, the enemy saw what they thought was a magnificent opportunity for them to do what was sitting in the recesses of their hearts: make Farrakhan look as if he killed Malcolm�although they know better�and then have someone kill him, and in the process, get rid of the Nation of Islam forever.

They went after the word "complicit" like a hungry dog goes after a bone it thinks has meat on it. The problem for those at CBS, and others of like mind is that this "complicit-bone" has no meat on it. In fact it is not even a bone at all! They bit on steel. Now their teeth are breaking out of their mouths. You�ll see. They will come to see they moved out against Minister Farrakhan on the basis of their self-delusions.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad informed Minister Farrakhan many, many years ago that the enemy would set traps for him. He told him that he would spring them, but that he would not get caught in them. He has just sprung the trap set by CBS and "60 Minutes," as you will see.

Over the past 23 years, Minister Farrakhan has sprung almost all of their evil traps. They have just about run out of traps. When that happens, what will they then do? What will Allah do?

The conclusion, next issue, Allah willing.