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August 21, 2008
Editor's Column: Death in Denver, A Small Event with an Ominous Warning
By Ilana Freedman, Editor and CEO, Gerard Group
Gerard Group Columnist: A Splendid Diversion, While the World Watches the Olympics
By Michael Travis
Denver Police have closed their investigation into the mysterious death of an indigent man in a suite of a luxury Denver hotel. They announced that his death was suicide, and that there was no link to terrorism. An FBI spokesman has also stated that the incident has no apparent terrorism connection.
The man was Saleman Abdirahman Dirie and, the coroner's verdict notwithstanding, his death raises far more questions than have been answered by the Denver police, who seemed quite happy to wash their hands of the whole affair. But the story surrounding Dirie's death is bizarre, and needs to be unraveled.
The facts, as far as they have been released, are these: Saleman Abdirahman Dirie was a 29-year-old Canadian citizen, a Muslim, and a former refugee from Somalia with no visible means of support and no money. He came to Denver from Ottawa by bus and checked into an upscale hotel (where the least expensive rooms rent for nearly $250 a night) for which he paid cash. There are reports that several thousand dollars in cash were also found in his room. He was not seen again until his body was found six days later next to a one pound jar of sodium cyanide crystals.
If you consider that this all took place in the city where the Democratic National Convention was about to take place, suspicion becomes alarm.
The questions themselves are disquieting. Why was he in Denver? Where did he get the cash to pay for his room? Where did he get a full pound of sodium cyanide crystals, enough to poison hundreds of people, and what was he planning to do with it?
Sodium cyanide is one of several cyanide salts that are among the most rapidly acting of all known poisons. These crystals are potent inhibitors of respiration, depriving the body of its ability to use oxygen. Its effect is deadly and swift. Mixed with acid, it becomes significantly more potent as it generates a highly toxic gas. Its close cousin, hydrogen cyanide, was used by the Nazis to produce Zyclon B, the gas of choice to murder millions of Jews in the Nazis' infernal gas chambers.
In short, a little goes a long way. So no one needs a pound of sodium cyanide to commit suicide, when a mere taste will do. A more likely scenario is that his curiosity got the better of him and he opened the jar, accidentally breathing or ingesting some of the cyanide. That would make it, perhaps, an accidental poisoning, but hardly a suicide.
The more important question remains: why else would anyone need a pound of cyanide? The timing of Dirie's visit to Denver, less than two weeks before the Democratic convention, raises an alarming possibility. National Republican and Democratic Conventions have been considered a high value target since 9/11 and the last round was surrounded by heavy (if imperfect) security. Compromising the water or HVAC systems in the Convention Center is a plan that might seem quite attractive in the name of jihad. And it could kill several hundred people.
The combined circumstances make the possibility that Dirie was an operative part of a jihad plot very real. Evolving strategies among the terrorists groups seem to lean towards small cells carrying out limited attacks on prime targets. This situation could be that, with Dirie being a one man jihadi whose job was to place the poison where it would do the most damage. On the other hand, if a very large attack were planned, as seems possible in this case, he might have been one of a larger group of terrorists, each with a single role to play. In this case, he would not have known the parts of the plots or the people who would carry them out. If the accidental death scenario is correct, then his extreme incompetence, which ended in his contamination and death, would indicate that the latter situation would be the most plausible one.
And that means that there are others like Dirie still out there, taking courage in the statements of the Denver police that the case is closed. As the festivities preceding the Democratic Convention are about to begin, the time to take this possibility seriously is now.
There are terrorist cells active throughout the country, using mosques and community centers, coffee houses, homes, and street meetings to develop and carry out their plans. Despite what the Denver police have said, this appears to be far more than a dysfunctional man taking his own life.
There is a pervading opinion among our leaders that Americans need to be protected from uncomfortable and frightening truths. Instead of giving us the opportunity to protect ourselves and our families, they prefer to tell us that everything is okay and under control, even when the threat is real and current. The time to be honest with the American people began a long time ago and the time for concern is now.
Overshadowed by the dazzling spectacle of the Olympic games in Beijing, the aftermath of the all out war between Russia and Georgia has received scant coverage and analysis in the North American media. America's enemies however, have forsaken the broadcasts of table-tennis, sprinters in hijabs, and competitive line-dancing, to give their undivided attention to what they view as far better sport; the defeat of "Team America" at the hand of the undisputed champion of international discord, Russia.
According to the Red Cross, Georgian and Ossetian civilians are seeking safe haven in Turkey, a move that has caused the Turkish government to reassess its stalled bid for NATO membership.
In a week that has seen General David Petraeus pledging more military equipment and specialized training for the Hizballah-dominated Lebanese government, U.S. State Dept. negotiations with the Iranian leadership in Geneva, and Presidential kow-towing to the Communist regime in China, you can bet the bank that Japan, Taiwan, Israel, and Eastern Europe's new NATO members, are becoming very nervous indeed.
Nonetheless, the United States and Poland has signed an agreement to deploy a U.S. missile defence system on their territory, to which Vladimir Putin has responded with threats of military retaliation.
Under advisement from the U.S. State Department, and U.S. military advisors on the ground in Tbilisi, the Georgian government has signed a French-U.S. brokered ceasefire agreement. Russia's response has been to move deeper into Georgian territory, establishing encampments and checkpoints throughout the vanquished nation.
While Russia perceives the United States to be a paper tiger, averse to defending its friends and allies, the Russian bear remains a power without equal, able to impose its will upon any and all foes. The Political Correctness, and subservience to the agenda of a Globalist "International Community" that is the cornerstone of U.S. Foreign policy, has provided fresh stimulus for Russia's quest to reclaim its position as a world power to be accommodated and feared.
Lasha Zhvania, head of the Georgian Parliament's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, has likened the Russian war against Georgia to "Tisha B'Av," the historic destruction of the first and second Jewish Temples, and "the saddest day in Jewish history." Tisha B'Av set the stage for almost 2,000 years of expulsions, persecution and genocide against the Jewish people. In an era that sees an ambitious Russian government once again aligned with some of history's most bloodthirsty regimes and Islamic movements, Zhvania's observation should be taken very seriously.
As Jews fasted on this last 9th day of Av (Sunday, 9 August 2008) and the American President joined the "Global Village" in watching a volleyball game, the brutal forces of tyranny and violence consolidated their hold on humanity.
In the Philippines, Islamic fighters with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front are fighting pitched battles within Christian villages in the autonomous North Cotabato province. As blood flows across Mindanao, 130,000 Christians have fled their homes, and the MILF are demanding their own, sovereign, Islamic Republic.
At the Olympics, sports fans cheered on their swim teams as American tourists were murdered in the streets of Beijing. Despite a brutal campaign of repression waged outside the Olympic venues, the "International Community" has managed to bow ever more deeply to the Communist regime in China.
The de facto Hizballah government in Lebanon can hardly contain their excitement as they await the delivery of more U.S. Military equipment to add to its already burgeoning arsenal of Iranian and Russian weaponry. With surface to surface, surface to air, and anti-ship missile emplacements in operation, Iran's proxy army is prepared to launch devastating attacks against Israeli population centers. The new American weapons can be considered frosting on the Lebanese terrorist's cake.
Iran of course is in the final stages of preparation for a nuclear attack against Israel, and quite likely, the United States as well.
Georgia? It's in flames. And the world stands at the precipice of global conflagration. But, hey! The U.S. Team won over 90 medals as of today!
At this point in time, the United States lacks clearly stated foreign policy, backed by a determined military command. Political Correctness and public relations considerations have revealed an Administration in disarray, with undefined priorities. Without a convincing display of solidarity with our allies, America's reputation will be tarnished beyond repair.
With the demise of our perceived credibility and the loss of our traditional sphere of influence, attacks against U.S. interests abroad, and terror operations on American soil seem inevitable. Negotiating with terrorists and enabling despotic regimes under the dubious banner of "Democratization" has put American lives in peril and set the stage for more regional conflicts.
Remember, Russia, Iran and Lebanon are all "vibrant democracies," yet they represent America's deadliest enemies.
© Gerard Group International, Inc. 2008
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