Denver: Cyanide Man not a terrorist says the family

but he was a diagnosed schizophrenic. He was also the "M" word and preliminary autopsy results show that cyanide - "the perfect terrorist weapon" was the cause of his death.

An Ottawa man whose mysterious death in a Denver hotel room is under investigation by the FBI was diagnosed with schizophrenia three years ago, his family revealed yesterday.

Preliminary autopsy results show Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, 29, may have died from exposure to cyanide, a rapidly acting chemical described by one expert as "the ideal terrorist weapon."

His sister is sticking up for him and not happy about the use of the "T" word. If you're going to get mad at anyone it should be the Islamic terrorists, dear. There's no need to get mad at us for just telling it like it is...and you think it hurts you? Hell, it's killing us!

In Ottawa, Mr. Dirie's sister told the Citizen that her brother suffered from mental illness, and she angrily rejected any suggestion that he was tied to terrorism or had any intention of harming Mr. Obama.

"He was not a terrorist," said the sister, who declined to give her name. "We don't want to hear that word, it hurts us. It is against our religion."

Ottawa holds no radical Islamist elements? I guess he forgot about this guy. (And in a striking coincidence we have his fiancee telling us "he's not that bright, but he's not a terrorist." Is this going to be the new excuses offered up by the so-called moderate Muslims about their homicidal brethren? They aren't that bright and they're nuts?) He must have also not heard about the teachers at the Ottawa Madrassa that praised the killing of Jews.

"It's a tragic story: this is a good family," said Abdirizak Karod, executive director of the Somali Centre for Family Services. He said the Somali community in Ottawa holds no radical Islamist elements. "It's not our culture," said Mr. Karod, who knows Mr. Dirie's brother, Hassan, and once met Saleman.

The police, he said, should reveal what quantity of poison was found in Mr. Dirie's room since a small amount would seem to pose little danger.

(Ed. note: Police report a POUND of the stuff was found.)

About the 'ideal terrorist weapon'

In a 2006 article published in the Journal of Prehospital and Disaster Medicine, Dr. Mark Keim, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned that "the characteristics of cyanide are those of the ideal terrorist weapon."

"Cyanide has a long history of use as a murder weapon, terrorist weapon and weapon of war as well as an agent of suicide and attempted genocide," he wrote.

Other moments in cyanide history include:

A number of prominent Nazis, including Hermann Goering and Heinrich Himmler, committed suicide using lethal pills which contained potassium cyanide. In 2001, four Moroccan men were arrested for their role in a plot to poison the U.S. embassy's water supply with sodium cyanide. In 1978, more than 900 people died after ingesting cyanide-laced Kool-Aid in Jonestown, Guyana, where the Rev. Jim Jones had established a commune. And cyanide is what Saddam Hussein is accused of using as a genocide agent against the Kurds during the Iran-Iraq war.

Let's review:

A Muslim schizophrenic with no visible means of economic support (i.e. job) decides to rent a car and drive from Canada to Denver (thus avoiding that nasty passport requirement). He tells his family he's feeling good and going on a vacation. He checks into a pricey $200/nite hotel with enough cyanide to kill a thousand people a week before the Democratic convention. (Ed. Note: anyone know how much a pound of cyanide goes for these days?)

Who was bankrolling this misadventure, I wonder?