March 30 (Bloomberg) -- A Canadian police squad charged with investigating threats to national security raided and searched two homes in Ottawa and arrested one man, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported.

About two dozen officers raided a two-story house in Orleans, a suburb east of Ottawa, yesterday afternoon and remained into the night, the CBC reported on its Web site, citing unnamed people. Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Nathalie Deschenes said the force is ``the lead on this investigation'' and wouldn't confirm whether other security forces were involved, the CBC said.

The house is listed as belonging to Mahboob Khawaja, who was once listed as a member of the faculty of Syracuse University and the author of a books and several essays about Muslims and Western culture, the CBC said.

A person who identified himself as Khawaja's son and a resident of the Orleans home told Bloomberg News in a telephone interview that his family had no idea what police were looking for, and that he hadn't seen a search warrant. The man declined to give his name.

Police refused to identify the man they arrested and wouldn't name the other home they raided yesterday, the CBC said.

(CBC 3-30 Online) For the CBC's Web site, see http://www.cbc.ca

To contact the reporter on this story:
Kevin Carmichael in Ottawa at kcarmichael@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor of this story:
Erik Schatzker at eschatzker@bloomberg.net.