Man charged in plot to blow up mosque served time for Bush death threat

The decorated Army veteran who authorities say wanted to blow up a Dearborn, Michigan mosque has served time in federal prison for death threats against George W. Bush and a Vermont veterans' center.

Sixty-three year-old Roger Stockham pleaded insanity after he threatened to blow up a veterans' center in Vermont in 2002 and threatened then-President Bush, The Detroit News reports. He claimed to be a local terrorist named "Hem Ahadin" in threatening calls.

Stockham was released from federal prison in 2005, after the warden certified he had recovered from his mental illness. Just two weeks ago, he referred to himself as "Hem Ahadin" in posts on Facebook again, according to the The Detroit News.

Stockham is a Vietnam Army veteran with a long history of mental illness, according to newspaper clippings gathered by Current Events Inquiry. In 1979, Stockham was accused of kidnapping his son from a foster home and then crash-landing a stolen plane in Los Angeles. In 1981, authorities were on a man hunt for him when he escaped a mental hospital after sending threatening letters to President Jimmy Carter. In 1985, he was suspected of planting a bomb at the Reno, Nevada airport.

The Associated Press reported in 1981 that Stockham was a convert to Islam. He's being held on $500,000 bond.

"We thank law enforcement authorities for their quick and professional actions in this troubling incident," Dawud Walid, executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said in a statement. "The increased number of bias incidents targeting American Muslim institutions must be addressed by local, state and national authorities."

(Stockham: AP.)