Denver Cyanide Mystery Death Round-Up

Well, let’s see here:

A man is found dead in a Denver hotel room.

2 weeks away from the Democratic Convention

He’s a Somali Muslim.

He crossed the border from Canada illegally.

He had cyanide in his possession, which is what killed him.

He is a Muslim extremist who has been found to have posted a hateful diatribe against Christians.

Law enforcement rules out foul play:

But Wednesday, the chemical was identified, and officials stressed there was no sign of foul play in the death of Saleman Abdirahman Dirie.

“It’s an isolated incident,” said Denver police Detective John White.

Why am I having this incredible feeling of deja vu?

I know. This reminds me a of the Goose Creek Terrorists; the two Muslim students who were caught just a little over a year ago carrying explosives in their car as they were heading toward a Naval Weapons Station and the U.S. Naval Consolidated Brig, a military prison where enemy combatants have been held.

At first, we were told it was all a big misunderstanding...remember?: It was not believed to be terror related.

Ahmed Abdellatif Sherif Mohamed, has since pleaded guilty to making a video demonstrating how to build a remote bomb detonator to help terrorists kill enemies including American soldiers.

Youssef Samir Megahed is awaiting trial on federal charges of transporting explosives and possession of a destructive device.

I do expect this to turn out to be terror related. But not everyone is so quick to pick up on the clues. This was actually reported in the Rocky Mountain News:

Bloggers were abuzz Wednesday over a threatening posting by a man with nearly the same name as Dirie.

“Having the bible in one hand, and a bread in the other hand, is not a correct thing! Kill Them, Kill them, Kill them, that is my massage!” read the comment by Abdirahman Dirie, on July 11.

The bloggers were discussing violence against Somali Christians, and Dirie apparently was taking the side of the Somali Muslims.

But the blogger Abdirahman Dirie was online again Wednesday, meaning it couldn’t be the same person, unless someone had taken the name as a joke.

Oh. my. stars. This is what he’s talking about (notice that the original Abdirahman Dirie comment [above] appeared on July 11):

Allahu Akbar! It sure is hot in here!

Comment by Abdirahman Dirie — August 13, 2008 @ 12:18 pm

BTW, there were only 7 virgins awaiting me after martyrdom, and they were NOT women. Bummer.

Comment by Abdirahman Dirie — August 13, 2008 @ 6:23 pm

I’d like to meet the guy who promised 72 virgins and kick him in the nuts.

I remember reading that passage, and he didn’t say ANYTHING about goats. Nothing! Go and look! It isn’t there! What a wanker.

Sincerely

Abdirahman Dirie

Comment by Abdirahman Dirie — August 14, 2008 @ 11:23 pm

Has this reporter from The Rocky Mountain News never heard of sockpuppets? I guess not. Wow.

In the meantime, Dirie’s sister in Canada has weighed in, and what a credible character witness she turns out to be:

“He was not a terrorist,” Dirie’s sister told CanWest News Service on Wednesday from the family home in Ottawa. “We don’t want to hear that word. It is against our religion.”

He can’t possibly be a terrorist because he’s Muslim.

Hooooookay.

The sister, who would not divulge her name, told CanWest that Saleman had been doing well with medication for the past three years to treat his schizophrenia and simply had gone to Denver on vacation.

“He was doing fine,” she said. “He was just a normal person.” She said he didn’t seem suicidal.

Why was this “normal person” staying at such an expensive hotel , with a pound of very dangerous pure cyanide?

Atlas Shrugs wonders if he was part of a cell. Could there be more like him out there, or was he just one unfortunate person, who happened to have a pound of deadly cyanide on him.

I think Ace was being sarcastic when he said:

A man of the Canadian religion died a few miles from the upcoming Democratic convention due to all that cyanide he had smuggled in.

Police say they do not suspect “foul play.” No, really, they said that. Just your everyday, normal Canadian man dying while attempting to build a cyanide gas bomb. Nothing “foul play” about that. It’s just some high-spirited college hijinks, like when those CalTech geeks steal a Stanford float and park it on top of a building, and then release a cloud of acidic poison into the air to kill half a stadium.

Don’t worry, though. He only had a little cyanide. Not enough to kill half a stadium.

Just a pound or so, “enough to kill hundreds of people.”

Unless he has friends.

UPDATE (August 16):

Dr, Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report has done a little digging to determine whether the Abdirahman Dirie who commented at Zot Media on July 11, is the same as our Denver Cyanide mystery Man. He’s near certain that it isn’t.

UPDATE (August 19):

Denverite AliceH popped in to give her impressions of the hotel. She says it’s not really all that upscale, after all:

The Burnsley isn’t that nice of a hotel. I mean, it’s not a dive, but it’s not in a very good part of town. Yes, I know the Governor’s Mansion is just a few blocks from it, but walking from there to the Governor’s Mansion late at night is not advised. All the hotels in Denver are stupid expensive, and everything is even more jacked up due to the convention. I’d be surprised if their suites went for more than $110 a night most of the time. (The cheapest suite there right now is $140, which will barely get you a room normally at most of the hotels worth staying in in the area.) Even though the website shows a great view, it’s pretty skeezy looking on the outside. (Amazingly, I don’t have a picture of it, despite having walked past it at least a dozen times. I remember shooting it, I just can’t find anything in my picture archives.)