Back in January, I told you about Vernon Robinson, an African-American Republican from North Carolina who's running for Congress boasting that he's the black Jesse Helms. At that time he was in the process of installing a granite Ten Commandments monument on the grounds of city hall in Winston-Salem -- all the while insisting that he wasn't trying to promote his candidacy. His campaign Web site rails against the feminization of the military. He thinks you're not truly prepared for a terrorist attack unless you're ready to fight for the supplies in your survival kit with a shotgun; he said this to a church gathering.

Now, in the waning days of his campaign for the GOP congressional nomination in his district, he's trying to gain an advantage by demonizing suspicious brown men with funny names. And -- as Newsday's free New York City offshoot, amNewYork, reports, he's not letting a little thing like unproved guilt get in his way:

Kamran Akhtar, a Pakistani man living in Queens, became the bogey man in a race for a North Carolina congressional seat this weekend when candidate Vernon Robinson began using him as a fear-mongering prop before a runoff election tomorrow in a GOP primary against state Sen. Virginia Foxx....

Robinson, a Winston-Salem City Councilman who has been labeled the black Jesse Helms by North Carolina newspapers, is calling Akhtar "a terrorist," even though no terror charges have been filed against him. A Robinson TV ad that began airing this weekend shows a photo of Akhtar, who was arrested last month while videotaping The Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, accompanied by this voice over: "This is Pakistani terrorist Kamran Akhtar ... He came here illegally, across our Mexican border ... I'm Vernon Robinson and I approve of this message because Akhtar didn't come here to live the American dream. He came here to kill you. In Congress, I will shut that border down."

Akhtar, 35, is being held without bail, charged with being in the country illegally and with lying to federal authorities. During a hearing in North Carolina on Friday, the words "terrorist" and "videotape" were not spoken in the courtroom.

Last week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said "there's nothing we know" to link Akhtar to terrorism.

Akhtar's home movies had no red flags with respect to terrorism. There was no footage of security cameras, guards or other safety precautions. The AP quoted a high-ranking
law enforcement official in New York as saying that Akhtar was a "video buff" with no apparent ties to terrorists.

The suspect's brother, Irfan Akhtar, of Elmhurst, has denied accusations that Kamran is a terrorist. He says his brother is a family man whose three children, between the ages of one and five, were born in this country. His wife is a legal resident who has applied for citizenship. Akhtar has lived in the U.S. for 15 years, albeit illegally since 1998, when his green card expired.

But none of this seemed to faze Robinson, who said, "If it quacks like a duck and we're in war time, I think it's a fair assessment. He wasn't a tourist and wasn't here to study architecture."

Be afraid of this Robinson guy. Be very afraid. He has a lot of mainstream GOP support; he really could be a rising star in the party.