A former US service member was arrested in Hawaii after he sent e-mails from Thailand threatening to kill US Vice President Joe Biden, authorities said on Monday.
The US Secret Service arrested Justin Alan Woodward when he arrived at Honolulu International Airport on Friday via a Delta Airlines flight from Bangkok, according to the criminal complaint filed in federal court in Honolulu.
He has been jailed awaiting a detention hearing today.
Woodward admitted to agents that he wrote the threatening messages, including one sent to the White House Web site on June 22, that read: “Biden ... you tried to get me to kill Obama in my home town of El Dorado, Kansas. I will kill you myself,” the expletive-filled complaint said.
The same e-mail, with the sender self-identified as “Justin Alan Woodward PhD,” mentions the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US and al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
It also accuses the vice president of trying to have Woodward assassinated and put under “mind control.”
Another e-mail, sent on June 26, said: “So Obama, when are we going to get together and smoke some marijuana ... I like the way you work. I am really glad I didn’t blow your head off back there, like I was supposed to.”
The Royal Thai Police traced the e-mail’s IP address to a public Wi-Fi access point in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
In an interview with a US Consulate official in Thailand, Woodward said he joined the US Marine Corps in 2002 and served as an infantryman, until he was medically discharged for bipolar disorder two years later. He also said that he served six months in Iraq and has been treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.
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