American Detained in Pakistan Had Sights on bin Laden (Published 2010) (2024)

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — An ailing, middle-age construction worker from Colorado, on a self-proclaimed mission to help American troops, armed himself with a dagger, a pistol, a sword, Christian texts, hashish and night-vision goggles and headed to the lawless tribal areas near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan to personally hunt down Osama bin Laden.

The Pakistani police detained the man on Monday, according to a police official from the border district of Chitral in Pakistan — an area widely rumored to hide Mr. bin Laden. On Tuesday, the man was transferred to Peshawar, the capital of Pakistan’s northwest, a Pakistani security official said. He was identified as Gary Brooks Faulkner, in his 50s.

Many details of Mr. Faulkner’s mission remain a mystery, including the possible relevance of a parallel with Mr. bin Laden: bad kidneys. In an interview on Tuesday, Mr. Faulkner’s younger sister, Deanna Martin, said he had developed a serious kidney ailment in recent months and needed dialysis every few days.

On Saturday, Mr. Faulkner checked into the Ishpata Inn in the Bumboret Valley, an area far from any city and without telephone contact with the rest of the country, the police in Chitral said.

He disappeared a day later, and the police tracked him down in the village of Sheikhanandeh. He threatened to kill anyone who got close to him, according to the Chitral police officials.

“He was roaming in the security zone in a suspicious manner,” said the Chitral police chief, Jaffer Khan, according to Reuters. “He had a dagger and night-vision goggles with him. He is being investigated.”

American officials were circ*mspect. A spokesman for the United States Embassy in Islamabad said that the American Consulate in Peshawar was alerted Tuesday morning that an American citizen had been detained, but that officials had not yet been able to see him.

Mumtaz Ahmed, a senior police official in Chitral, told The Associated Press that Mr. Faulkner had a book containing Christian verses and teachings.

But he was also carrying a pistol with 40 rounds, a night-vision device, a camera, a dagger, a knife and a small quantity of hashish, according to a security official who asked not to be identified because he was not allowed to speak publicly on the matter.

The official said that the man identified as Mr. Faulkner told the police that he wanted to go to the Afghan province of Nuristan, just across the border, “to locate bin Laden and kill him.” He also said he wanted to help American forces. Officials said the man had made several trips to Pakistan in the last seven years and had been to Chitral many times in the last three. It was unclear what he had done on those trips.

Ms. Martin, in a telephone interview from Colorado, said she had been in touch with the State Department and was trying to ensure her brother was receiving treatment for his kidney ailment.

She said she knew her brother, who worked in construction in Greeley, Colo., had been traveling to Pakistan and was not totally surprised he had been detained.

Describing her brother as “very patriotic,” she said he had grown frustrated with the public debate over the country’s involvement in two major wars because, in his view, the main cause had been forgotten.

“The reason is because a man ordered a hit on our country, so we went to war and now we are fighting wars in the Middle East on every front,” she said.

His brother, Dr. Scott Faulkner, said Tuesday at a news conference in Denver that though Mr. Faulkner had never served in the military or received any special training, he had developed an intense passion for hunting down Mr. bin Laden ever since Sept. 11.

With money saved from his work in construction, Mr. Faulkner began financing trips to Pakistan beginning in 2002. He would spend weeks in the northern reaches of the country searching for Mr. bin Laden, his family said.

He did not speak tribal languages, but grew his beard long and wore traditional garb to blend in. He was an avid outdoorsman and hunter, which helped in the remote areas he was searching, Dr. Faulkner said.

Dr. Faulkner, an Air Force veteran and internist from Fort Morgan, Colo., said that Mr. Faulkner set out for Pakistan a sixth and final time on May 30. He drove his brother to the airport in Denver that day.

Mr. Faulkner told his brother this was to be his last trip because of his health, and he had sold off his construction tools to help pay for it. He also said he wanted to check a cave he had found one final time.

“He’s not crazy. He’s not a psychopath. He’s not a sociopath. He’s a man on a mission,” Dr. Faulkner said.

Ms. Martin said she was at a bit of a loss to explain Mr. Faulkner’s quest. “I love my brother,” she said. “He’s always been a good guy. People are asking me, ‘Why?’ For me, it’s not what I would do.”

Her husband, John, added, “How many people thought Paul Revere was a nut?’”

Asked if his brother-in-law was a hero or a nut, Mr. Martin replied, “I think if he would have accomplished his task, he would have been a hero.”