Global General
Bin Laden hunter's family worried about his health
(Agencies)
Updated: 2010-06-16 15:19
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ISLAMABAD - An American construction worker detained in Pakistan on what authorities said was an armed solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden has been examined by a doctor, Pakistani officials said Wednesday, after his relatives warned he had kidney problems and needed dialysis.
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 This Jan. 2006 photo provided Tuesday, June 15, 2010 by the Larimer County, Colo. Sheriff's Office shows Gary Brooks Faulkner, after he was arrested on a Compulsory Insurance charge. Faulkner, armed with a pistol and a 40-inch sword, was detained Tuesday in northern Pakistan as he tried to cross the border into Afghanistan on a mission to avenge the 9/11 attacks and kill Osama bin Laden, police said. [Agencies] |
Gary Brooks Faulkner was also being questioned by a team of Pakistani investigators, two security officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to media. They did not give additional details, including what the doctor had determined about the man's condition.
The Greeley, Colorado, man arrived June 3 in the town of Bumburate and stayed in a hotel there. He was assigned a police guard, as is common for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan. When he checked out without informing the guard, officers began looking for him, senior police official Mumtaz Ahmad Khan said.
Faulkner was found late Sunday in a forest.
"We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden," Khan said. But when officers found weapons, including a 40-inch sword and a pistol as well as night-vision equipment, "our suspicion grew."
He said Faulkner was trying to cross into the nearby Afghan region of Nuristan, one of several rumored hiding places for bin Laden along the rugged Afghan-Pakistan border.
Faulkner's sister, Deanna M. Faulkner of Grand Junction, Colorado, said her brother suffers from kidney disease that has left him with only 9 percent kidney function. "I'm worried about him. I'm worried that in Pakistan they won't give him his dialysis and if he doesn't get it, he's in serious trouble," she said.
US Embassy spokesman Rick Snelsire said American officials were seeking consular access to a US citizen in Pakistani custody and that once given, they could help arrange for medical care.
Gary Faulkner retained vivid memories of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and was serious but rational about his search, his brother Scott said. When Scott Faulkner dropped his brother off at Denver's airport May 30, the two discussed the possibility Faulkner would not return alive.
"He's as normal as you and I," Scott Faulkner said. "He's just very passionate, and, as a Christian, he felt, when Osama mocked this country after 9/11, and it didn't feel like the military was doing enough, it became his passion, his mission, to track down Osama, and kill him, or bring him back alive."
Scott Faulkner said his brother sold all his tools to finance his trip and was prepared to die in Pakistan. He said his brother took no weapons and had a valid visa for Pakistan.
Gary Faulkner, who was being questioned in the main northwest city of Peshawar, has not yet been charged with any crime in Pakistan. Khan noted police confiscated a small amount of hashish, enough for a single joint, from Faulkner.
The American was in and out of Colorado state prisons between 1981 and 1993, serving a total of about seven years in five separate stints for burglary, larceny and parole violations, state officials said.
Bin Laden, who is also reported to have kidney problems, has evaded a massive manhunt since September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States, which he is accused of masterminding along with other attacks. The federal government has offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to his capture.
Khan said when Faulkner was asked why he thought he could trace bin Laden, he replied, "God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him."