An American on a solo mission to hunt down Osama bin Laden is back home in Colorado, 10 days after authorities found him in the woods of northern Pakistan with a pistol, a sword and night-vision equipment.
"It's incredible to have him home," said Faulkner's sister, Deanna Martin.
Wearing a gray shirt, sandals and beige chinos, and with his long gray hair in a pony tail, Faulkner arrived Wednesday in Los Angeles. He said he was well cared for during his confinement and that Pakistani medical workers administered dialysis to treat his kidney disease.
Asked if he planned to return to the region, Faulkner said, "Absolutely,'' adding cryptically, "You'll find out at the end of August.''
Faulkner arrived hours earlier at Los Angeles International Airport on an Emirates Airlines flight from Pakistan, where he'd been detained since June 13. He told officials he was out to kill the al-Qaida leader.
He was then moved to Islamabad, and his brother told The Associated Press on Tuesday that he was being released by the Pakistani government without charges.
Faulkner, of Greeley, Colo., said organizing his trip "took a lot of money and a lot of time." Shortly after arriving in Los
Angeles, he spoke to reporters about his trip and his intent to get bin Laden.
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"This is not about me. What this is about is the American people and the world,'' he said. "We can't let people like this scare us. We don't get scared by people like this, we scare them and that's what this is about. We're going to take care of business.''
Gary Faulkner is an unemployed construction worker who sold his tools to finance six trips on what relatives have called a
Rambo-type mission to kill or capture bin Laden.
He grew out his hair and beard to fit in better.
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