Who Is Construction Worker Hunting Bin Laden?

Did you see the news the other day about the construction worker from California, Gary Falkner, who was picked up by Pakistani authorities as he tried to enter Afghanistan on a one-man hunt for Osama bin Laden? He was armed with only a pistol and a sword, each of which he bought in Pakistan. It turns out that he was perhaps better prepared in some ways, and less well in  others, than we all might have suspected initially.  This was his seventh trip to the region since September 11, 2001, and he had even learned the local language reportedly. From a family of life-long hunters in Colorado, he had well-honed outdoor survival skills.


But according to CBS News HERE, Faulkner is 50 years old and suffers from kidney disease requiring dialysis. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he reportedly believes that he is on a mission from God to kill Bin Laden.  Besides the sword and pistol, he carried with him only a Bible and some plastic handcuffs.  But he wasn't always the devout Christian that he his today. He apparently spent the better part of the decade between 1981 and 1993 in state prison in Colorado on charges varying from burglary to larceny to domestic violence.  


His family insists he's not crazy. They knew full well of his trips to the region. His brother even drove him to the airport at the start of this most recent trip. This is an excellent one-and-a-half minute summary from Good Morning America this morning: