Gary Faulkner: I Want to Capture bin Laden Alive
The story seemed too bizarre to be true: Gary Faulkner, a 50-year-old Greeley, Colo. construction worker, found alone and arrested in a forest in northern Pakistan on June 13, armed with a pistol, sword and night-vision goggles, saying he was trying to hunt down the world's most-wanted terrorist, Osama bin Laden.
Now back on U.S. soil after being released, he's vowing to return to Pakistan try again.
And on "The Early Show" Monday, Faulkner told co-anchor Erica Hill his goal is to capture bin Laden, not kill him, as earlier reports about him indicated.
"I want to capture had him alive and bring him into justice," he remarked to Hill, "just like Saddam (Hussein), who was insane. He went down like a dog, because he was in a hole. He came out. Then he had his big boast in front of the courts and the world and stuff, and he got hung. Now, he's just a byword."
Faulkner admitted all the publicity his arrest got may have tipped his hand somewhat, but said he's not concerned about getting past bin Laden's heavy security. "I'm a thief. I'm there to boost him. So, you know, I don't plan on doing the job because I want to get caught. I'm there to get something. So, whether it's to get into someone's house to go to a bank or whatever, I'm there to get him. He is the same thing, no different than anything else."
Faulkner hinted he's been getting help from people inside the Pakistani government and military, as well as locals. But he wouldn't elaborate, saying, "Because of the nature of what's still yet to come, I can't divulge too much as far as that because there's a lot of people's lives if it would come out who actually gave help."
The so-called "Rocky Mountain Rambo" says his latest visit was his seventh to Pakistan, and he grew his hair and beard to blend in.
He may have been motivated by the $25 million FBI bounty on bin Laden's head, says CBS News Correspondent Jeff Glor, or by what he called a "mission from God."
Either way, Faulkner decided to take matters into his own hands despite being seriously ill with kidney problems and in need of dialysis.
"He's not psychotic, he doesn't have schizophrenia," insists his brother, Dr. Scott Faulkner, a physician in the northeastern Colorado town of Fort Morgan. "He doesn't have pictures of Osama bin Laden plastered all over his apartment. He's as normal as you and me. He's just very passionate."
Faulkner's been arrested 10 times in Greeley for crimes including burglary and domestic violence, but friends and family say he's not delusional -- just patriotic. "He just got tired of it and said, 'I'll do something about it,' and so he did," says Gary Faulkner friend Darren Parades. "He's a hero in my book."