(Denver, Aug 14,  2008 Ceegaag Online

 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 Wednesday.

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."

Denver police confirmed Wednesday that the jar of white powder found in Dirie's hotel room contained sodium cyanide, the crystal, or salt, form of the chemical.

The incident has raised disturbing new security concerns on the eve of the Democratic National Convention, which is to open in Denver on Aug. 25. The convention will officially nominate Illinois Senator Barack Obama as party's presidential candidate.

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

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

Her brother, she said, had travelled alone to Colorado for a vacation. The family, she said, was devastated to learn he had died in his Denver hotel room. "He was just going on a trip," his sister said. "He just told us he wanted to go on a vacation and then we heard our brother had died."

Dirie's sister said her brother had been doing well since he began receiving treatment for his illness about three years ago. "He was fine. He was just a normal person."

Her brother was taking his medication regularly when he left Ottawa, she said, and was not suicidal. She did not know how or why he would have come in contact with cyanide.

A Canadian citizen, Dirie had lived in Ottawa for 13 years. His family arrived as refugees from Somalia when he was 17.

At the Dirie family home Wednesday, his grieving mother was comforted by friends and close relatives, who described Dirie as a "good guy." He had studied hard at university, they said, before complications from diabetes forced him out of school. He subsequently spent a lot of time alone, reading books and watching television.

A few weeks ago, Dirie said he was feeling good and announced that he was going on vacation in Denver.

An older brother, Hassan Dirie, travelled to Colorado Wednesday to claim the body.

Denver police say Dirie had been dead for several days when his body was discovered in his fourth-floor room of the Burnsley Hotel on Monday.

It's not clear why the Ottawa man had the potentially dangerous chemical or what he intended to do with it, said Denver police spokesman John White.

"Sodium cyanide is readily available commercially," he noted. "It's found in rat poison; it's used to plate metals like gold-plated watches and gold-plated rings."

Police are still waiting for a coroner's report to tell them how Dirie died. The FBI has joined the Denver police investigation.

FBI Special Agent Kathy Wright said the bureau wants to know what Dirie was doing with sodium cyanide in his hotel room. "That in itself raises a lot of questions, so we're investigating that," she said.

Wright cautioned, however, that investigators have no reason to believe the incident has any connection to terrorism or to the Democratic National Convention.

"We don't have any information this is related to the DNC," she said, "but that comes to mind because it is only a week and a half away."

The RCMP confirmed Wednesday that it has been contacted by U.S. authorities but a spokesman refused to detail the kind of information being sought.

"I can only tell you we are assisting the U.S. authorities at their request," said Cpl. Pat Flood.

Members of the local Somali community expressed surprise that Dirie's death is now the subject of so much concern among U.S. authorities.

"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 Islamic elements. "It's not our culture," said Karod, who knows Dirie's brother, Hassan, and once met Saleman. The police, he said, should reveal what quantity of poison was found in Dirie's room since a small amount would seem to pose little danger. Denver police would not confirm how much of the powder was found, though published reports have said there was about a half litre.

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.

The chemical is readily available, with an estimated 1.84 billion pounds of cyanide produced each year for use in industrial processes, such as the making of paper, textiles and plastics.

In its salt form, cyanide can be introduced into the water supply or into food, Keim said, and does not require specialized skills to handle. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, cyanide prevents the cells of the body from using oxygen. It can cause nausea, dizziness and headaches within minutes; exposure to a significant amount of the chemical can produce convulsions, unconsciousness, respiratory failure and death.

Ottawa's Somali community in shock

Meanwhile, members of Ottawa's Somali community, which Dirie belonged to, are in shock after learning of his death.

"I don't know what happened. The community don't know what happened but I think the community do care. One of their members who travelled to Denver lost his life there," Abdirizak Karod told CTV Ottawa on Wednesday, adding that Dirie's family left for Denver immediately after learning of his death.

Police are now waiting on toxicology results to determine

Source: The Ottawa Citizen

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