American Citizen Hunting bin Laden Detained in Pakistan
VOA News 15 June 2010
Police in northern Pakistan say they have arrested an American who said he was on a solo mission to kill al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden.
Authorities say they found the man armed with a handgun, a sword, a dagger and night vision equipment in the Chitral region near the Afghan border. Police say the man was trying to cross into Afghanistan's Nuristan region because he told them that bin Laden was hiding there.
Authorities in Chitral have identified the man as Gary Faulkner, a construction worker from California.
They say he arrived in Chitral on June 3 and was staying at a local hotel. Officials there had assigned him a security guard, a step that is quite common for foreigners in remote parts of Pakistan. Pakistani authorities began searching for Faulkner after the guard noticed that he had disappeared.
Afghanistan's Nuristan region and Pakistan's Chitral region are among several rumored hiding spots for the al-Qaida leader. Osama bin Laden's whereabouts have remained a mystery since the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan in 2001.
A U.S. embassy spokesman says Pakistani authorities have informed American officials of the arrest of a U.S. citizen.
Some information for this report was provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.
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