A man behind bars in Michigan stands accused of plotting to blow up a Metro Detroit mosque.
Roger Stockham, 63, who flew 600 combat helicopter missions in Vietnam, is behind bars in Michigan after he drove from his home in California last week and parked a car with a trunk full of explosives outside the Islamic Center of America, authorities said.
Acting on a tip, Dearborn police thwarted the alleged plot by arresting Stockham outside the sprawling religious center, one of the largest mosques in North America. At the time, 500 members were attending a funeral at the mosque.
•He’s white.
•He’s 63 year old.
•He’s a decorated Army veteran.
Case closed.
Anti- Muslim tea-bagger, right? Mission accomplished, Beck, Limbaugh, Palin and Hannity, right?
OOOOPS!….not so fast:
According to federal records, Stockham pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to federal charges stemming from the case in Vermont in 2004. That included threatening the president, mailing threatening communications, threatening by use of the telephone to use explosives, and threatening witnesses.
A psychiatric examination found that Stockham suffered from bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder and personality disorder with anti-social features.
In the Vermont incident, he told authorities at the time of his arrest at a Veterans Affairs Department complex in Colchester that his minivan was full of explosives. A search found no explosives.
Before the arrest, Stockham called a local paper twice to say he was going to explode bombs in the neighborhood. In one call, he identified himself as “Hem Ahadin,” saying he was “a local Muslim terrorist on a roll.”
He ranted against the VA, the FBI and Bush, largely because of the things the president had said about Iraq in a speech earlier in the week.
According to affidavit filed in U.S. District Court, Stockham threatened to carry out “jihad,” or holy war, against the VA office in White River, Vt.
In recent weeks, a California VFW post was in the process of removing Stockham as a member after several recent incidents, said a post official.
Four months ago, Stockham was suspended for 60 days for smoking marijuana at Post 5477 in Imperial Beach, said Richard Schmitz, co-chairman of the post’s house committee.
After he returned from suspension, Stockham referred to the black post commander with a racial slur, said Schmitz.
Schmitz, who has known Stockham for four years, described him as a loner who, though he appeared at the post frequently, rarely socialized with other members.
“He’s a nut,” said Schmitz. “He flipped out lately.”
And lefty bloggers had such high hopes…
Think Progress reacted by playing up some rare examples of anti-Muslim hate crimes, and ending with dark hints that anti-Muslim rhetoric may have influenced Stockham’s actions, naming NY Congressman, Peter King specifically:
And while there’s no indication that Stockham was influenced by any political figure or faction, his actions are by no means isolated. As more and morepundits and politiciansencourage paranoia and vilifyMuslimAmericans rather than responsibly speaking out against it, they cultivate an Islamophobic atmosphere of hate that make incidents like this more likely. After all, with the House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-NY) preaching that “80 percent of mosques in this country are controlled by radical Imams,” it seems only a matter of time before someone like Stockham offers a “radical” solution.
First comment:
Congratulations Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Hannity, etc.
You are finally getting idiots like this to carry out your message.
LOL. Because Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Hannity, etc. are so known for encouraging listeners to threaten President Bush’s life. No? It was the left who did that, you say?
TPM Muckraker also played up anti Muslim hate crimes angle (did I mention how rare these are compared to other types of hate crimes) and linked the plot to anti-Muslim rhetoric:
The Islamic Center of America, said Walid, is the largest mosque in North America. It has faced threats in the past. In 2004, two New York men sent threatening e-mails to the mosque. They were both charged with violating 18 U.S.C. 247, which makes it a crime to “intentionally obstruct[ ], by force or threat of force, any person in the enjoyment of that person’s free exercise of religious beliefs, or attempt[ ] to do so,” and plead guilty in 2005. The mosque was also vandalized when someone wrote “9/11 Terrorists Go Home” on the side of the building around 2007, Walid said.
Walid said that he thinks that anti-Muslim rhetoric played a role in the incident.
“I believe it is a mixture of the two, between a person being mentally unstable within a society context of a lot of anti-Muslim rhetoric floating around. People can be on the edge and when they’re exposed to enough negative information about a group of people… it may be enough to push them over the edge,” Walid said.
Except it turns out that that Stockham (or Hem Ahadin, as he likes to be called) apparently considered himself some sort of Muslim terrorist, which of course doesn’t explain why he would target a mosque.
The whole thing is just weird.
But I’m gonna go out on a limb here, and say it’s doubtful that Beck, Limbaugh, Palin, Hannity, and Peter King had anything to do with it.
See also:
The Blaze: Unfair Tease? CNN Ties George W. Bush to Attempted Mosque Bomber
UPDATE:
Maybe TPM and Think Progress could show some intellectual honesty for a change and police their own side where the real hateful and dangerous rhetoric resides:
Michelle Malkin: Civility Watch: “Time for assassination” anti-Tea Party/Fox News/Beck/Hannity/Malkin rap
MORE:
Another one!:
Susan Swift at Big Journalism reports: Make-Believe Media Ignores Jared Lee Loughner Wannabe
Hat tip: Weasel Zippers
Linked by Michelle Malkin, and PJ Tatler, and Conservative Wanderer, and Instapundit,and The Dignified Rant, and Blazing Catfur, and Red State, and Moe Lane, and Patterico, and Doug Ross, and The Right of the People, and Verum Serum, and adeliemanchot, thanks!
January, 31, 2011 at 5:10 pm
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Deetz and JadedByPolitics, Nice Deb. Nice Deb said: Another Liberal Meme Bites The Dust: http://t.co/6rxNlNW #tcot [...]
January, 31, 2011 at 5:11 pm
Weird. The news break on the radio this morning said the guy was anti government, I wonder why they chose to use those words instead of mentioning the threat against Bush? Actually, I don’t wonder, that was a rhetorical question!
January, 31, 2011 at 6:19 pm
Just another incident that should trigger evaluation of why a man who is so mentally unstable isn’t receiving permanent residential care at a mental institution instead of being allowed to run around among us until he kills someone.
But that it too complex a subject for most, so we’ll fight about gun rights and muslim tolerance instead.
January, 31, 2011 at 6:27 pm
[...] Nice Deb and The Blog Prof have the scoop. [...]
January, 31, 2011 at 6:52 pm
[...] [...]
January, 31, 2011 at 9:01 pm
Oh the poor liberals, whatever will they do?
However will they cope?
Why can’t it be just what it is? Another crazy person , who thankfully was caught before carrying out his evil deed.
January, 31, 2011 at 11:30 pm
[...] FAIL (CONT’D): ARRESTED MOSQUE-BOMBER LOONY turns out to be loony anti-war lefty. This kind of thing just keeps [...]
January, 31, 2011 at 11:45 pm
From http://www.ttgnet.com/daynotes/2011/2011-06.html
“The article says the man possessed explosives, but on further reading it turns out that the “explosives” he had in his vehicle were Class C fireworks, an obsolete term for Consumer Fireworks, which is to say firecrackers. ”
Maybe not as dangerous as the cops want people to believe?
February, 1, 2011 at 12:15 am
That’s right Ken, fireworks.
He had class C fireworks that are legal in Ohio, but not Michigan, namely M80′s. M80′s can blow your fingers off, but I wouldn’t consider them effective terrorist weapons.
I’ve lived in Dearborn for 20 years. The mayor is a dull sort who loves the attention that things like this give him, so he likes to trump up the story.
And Dawud Walid is always crying about how there is ‘a lot of anti-Muslim sentiment around here’, as he did on CNN this afternoon, while completely ignoring the fact this guy is from California, and in fact drove there a couple of days before from his California home. Oh, and he’s batsh*t crazy.
For the most part, Muslims in Dearborn are great people. They’ve been here a long time, have prospered in a tough economy, and bring a lot of value to Dearborn and the metro area, but Walid and CAIR give them a bad name.
February, 1, 2011 at 3:18 am
I agree with Anonna, take the blinkers off and look at what’s become of your own self-absorbed, argumentative self.
Roger Stockham sounds to me like somebody who is criminally insane. We all saw the Deer Hunter, right? OK. Stockham is one of those veterans who never readjusted to civilian life. This guy flew 600 combat missions for his country. What more could a country ask of any one of its citizens? Who reading this blog can say they have given as much?
Let’s not make a political football out of this guy, and instead pause to reflect for a minute on why we let this happen. I say we as a nation let him down.
It makes me sick to hear people dismiss this guy as if he were just some good-for-nothing nut job.
This story is not about the left-right conflict or Muslim tolerance, it’s about supporting our troops and taking care of people who clearly cannot take care of themselves.
February, 1, 2011 at 6:20 am
Orwellian… up is down… right is violent…left is benevolent…
Crazy enough that they have the balls to repeatedly do this (blame right, quash it when it’s the left), but what’s worse is that – notwithstanding a few blogs like this – the public accepts it (and all of the other noise) decade in & decade out.
February, 1, 2011 at 8:48 am
I’ve never posted here before, but feel compelled to now.
I live in Michigan, and it seems even conservative bloggers are falling into the misinformation trap being propegated.
I would think Deb would dig just a tad deeper into what is going on in Dearborn.
This is a guy, unstable, bi-polar, who thinks he’s a muslim, get’s drunk at a bar run by muslims, says something (God know’s what), drives to the parking lot of the mosque, and is arrested for having firecrackers in his trunk.
The first headline in the Detroit Free Press was, to the effect, “Man attempts to blow up mosque”.
Telling, is the imam of the mosque who addressed the congregation at a prayer service.
Listen to what he tells them happened. Pay close attention to how much he tells them he knows, and what the “facts” are.
February, 1, 2011 at 8:48 am
[...] This story got very quickly overshadowed by world events, but last week police arrested a man allegedly planning to blow up a Dearborn, Michigan mosque with ‘high-end fireworks‘*. Needless to say, the Usual Suspects lined up to try the entire “right-wing violent nut inspired by [INSERT NAME HERE]” – because Obama’s Tucson Speech apparently only applies to other people, not Think Progress and/or Talking Points Memo** – only to just now discover that the alleged attacker is… well, you make the call. [...]
February, 1, 2011 at 9:00 am
[...] This story got very quickly overshadowed by world events, but last week police arrested a man allegedly planning to blow up a Dearborn, Michigan mosque with ‘high-end fireworks‘*. Needless to say, the Usual Suspects lined up to try the entire “right-wing violent nut inspired by [INSERT NAME HERE]” – because Obama’s Tucson Speech apparently only applies to other people, not Think Progress and/or Talking Points Memo** – only to just now discover that the alleged attacker is… well, you make the call. [...]
February, 1, 2011 at 9:58 am
Browndog, what did I get wrong? I reported essentally what you summed up.
February, 1, 2011 at 10:01 am
which of course doesn’t explain why he would target a mosque.
If he is a true convert and not just a nutter claiming that he’s converted, maybe he wanted to get the “wrong” Moslems at the mosque whether Shiite or Sunni (or other)? Not likely, but you never know.
February, 1, 2011 at 10:05 am
thanks for putting this together, deb.
I’m still trying to parse “drunk at a bar run by Muslims.” I’ll get back once I do.
thanks again.
February, 1, 2011 at 11:20 am
Greetings;
Do you not find it to be rather ironic that when a corporately controlled democracy receives a wink and a nod from the corporately controlled UN to evade a free society in order to incorporate a countries resources it’s called a Liberator, yet, when the peoples of the evaded country sets out to form a resistance in order to protect its countries resources, it is deemed a terrorist organization by the corporately owned medias?
“9-11 was a Ritual Human Sacrifice. That, and the obvious catalyst for the so called “War on Terror”. Behind the scenes, there is only One Party. Our Party. ‘Democracy’ is an illusion which is created to uphold your slavery. Whichever side ‘wins’; the Family wins.” – Hidden_Hand
“Q: (L) What are the blasphemous titles on the heads of the beast?
A: In God we trust.
Q: (L) “And the beast that I saw resembled a leopard…”
A: New World Order.” – 6D STO
The very best to you on your journey of discovery,
Travis @ http://www.focusonrecovery.net
February, 1, 2011 at 11:36 am
Travis, do you think you are being controlled by grammar?
February, 1, 2011 at 1:45 pm
[...] Another Liberal Meme Bites The Dust Except it turns out that that Stockham (or Hem Ahadin, as he likes to be called) apparently considered himself some sort of Muslim terrorist, which of course doesn’t explain why he would target a mosque. [...]
February, 1, 2011 at 4:49 pm
No, Deb, you didn’t get anything “wrong”.
You focused on “the narrative doesn’t fit the suspect”, when the larger story is “the charges don’t fit the crime”.
Being a part of the media, I understand your fight with the media. My fight is creeping sharia, and the false victim hood of muslims used as a tool to establish it.
BlogProf has done amazing work on the Christians arrested and tried last year in Dearborn. Same story line, same false narrative parroted by the media.
No one is saying he’s innocent of all crimes. But, his thwarted attempt to “blow up” the nations largest mosque, as reported by every national news outlet, with a couple dozen firecrackers is laughable on it’s face.
February, 1, 2011 at 7:01 pm
[...] This story got very quickly overshadowed by world events, but last week police arrested a man allegedly planning to blow up a Dearborn, Michigan mosque with ‘high-end fireworks‘*. Needless to say, the Usual Suspects lined up to try the entire “right-wing violent nut inspired by [INSERT NAME HERE]” gambit – because Obama’s Tucson Speech apparently only applies to other people, not Think Progress and/or Talking Points Memo** – only to just now discover that the alleged attacker is… well, you make the call. [...]
February, 1, 2011 at 7:07 pm
[...] Another Liberal Meme Bites The Dust A man behind bars in Michigan stands accused of plotting to blow up a Metro Detroit mosque. Roger Stockham, 63, who [...] [...]