Damn Fine American Arrested for Hunting Bin Laden with a Sword in Pakistan

This is from the Associated Press, via TPM:

An American armed with a pistol and a 40-inch (102-centimeter) sword was detained in northern Pakistan and told investigators he was on a solo mission to kill Osama bin Laden, a police officer said Tuesday.

The man, identified as 52-year-old Californian construction worker Gary Brooks Faulkner, said he wanted to cross over into the nearby Afghan province of Nuristan because he had “heard bin Laden was living there”, according to officer Mumtaz Ahmad Khan.

He was picked up in a forest in the Chitral region late on Sunday, he said.

“We initially laughed when he told us that he wanted to kill Osama bin Laden,” said Khan. But he said when officers seized the pistol, the sword, a dagger and night-vision equipment, “our suspicion grew.”

Faulkner told police he visited Pakistan seven times, and this was his third trip to Chitral, which is a mountainous region that attracts adventurous Western tourists and hikers. Unlike much of northwestern Pakistan, it is considered relatively safe for foreigners.

When asked why he thought he had a chance of tracing bin Laden, Faulkner replied, “God is with me, and I am confident I will be successful in killing him,” said Khan.

Faulkner arrived in the Chitrali town of Bumburate on June 3 and stayed in a hotel there.

He was assigned a police guard, as is quite common for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan. When he checked out without informing police, officers began hunting for him, said Khan.

So this guy, whom I’ll groundlessly speculate is a wingnut, is filled with religious fervor, a sense of American superiority and has a pistol and a sword. He takes an adventure tour in Pakistan, slips his escort and sets off to hunt Osama Bin Laden in the wilds of … a mountainous region “considered relatively safe for foreigners.”

I will further speculate that we will all come to assume that this guy has a screw lose. But I have to add that this is simply a perfect analog of George Bush’s entire War on Terror.

Make no mistake: this construction worker is one of Sarah Palin’s Real Americans®.

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