When wingnuts go looking for terrorists

-- by Dave

It seems a strange Somali man from Canada was found dead in a Denver hotel room this week with a pound of sodium cyanide in his room. It's an unusual case and certainly raises concerns about the potential for a terrorist incident at the Democratic National Convention later this month.

The wingnutosphere, of course, leapt quickly into action. Led by Michelle Malkin and her band of flying monkeys, the man's Somali ethnicity immediately became ground for suspecting yet another evil Muslim terrorist plot.

One small problem: They're wrong, as usual.

Now, the right-wing bigotsphere has been sharply on the lookout for would-be jihadis in America ever since 9/11. This has produced a seemingly endless parade of xenophobic hsyterics, led largely by the likes of Malkin, pointing to the presence of supposed Muslim terrorists -- from the guy who blew himself up with a pipe bomb in Oklahoma to the "mysterious" men on the Seattle ferry -- who turn out not to be after all.

In the meantime, of course, any incidents involving white, non-Muslim domestic terrorists does not interest them in the least -- especially when, as with the recent Knoxville shooter, there is a clear and unmistakable connection to right-wing ideologies.

In the case of the Denver cyanide carrier, the wingnuts leapt to all kinds of conclusions. Even though FBI agents found no evidence of a conspiracy and no clear evidence that the cyanide was being planned for terroristic purposes, Malkin and Co. were scoffing at this.

Especially notable was Jay Tea at Wizbang, who theorized thus:

Let's play connect the dots: start with a Somali Muslim living in Canada. Then have him travel to the city that in just a few days will be hosting the Democratic National Convention. Then have him die in a hotel room. Finally, have police search the room and find a POUND of cyanide -- enough poison to kill a couple hundred people, if distributed and delivered properly.

Some lone nut? I'm not so sure. ...

The FBI says there's no apparent connection to terrorism, but I'm not buying it.

But all one has to do is read the original story to see that it's unlikely the man was a Somali Muslim; rather, he appears to have been a Somali Christian:

An online threat posted in July by a man with a similar name warned of death.

"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 (sic),!" read the posting by Abdirahman Dirie on the 'Solmali's for Jesus' Blog.

It seems likely this man was yet another right-wing religious nutcase out to kill liberals. We'll reserve final judgment on that until more information comes in. But does anyone want to place bets on how quickly the story disappears from the bigotsphere's nattering schedule?

[Cross-posted at Firedoglake.]