Gary Brooks Faulkner: Was 'American ninja' working for CIA?
Gary Brooks Faulkner, the man arrested in the hinterlands of Pakistan who says he was hunting Osama bin Laden, seems to have more in common with Chuck Norris movies than with any US intelligence activity.
This May 30 picture provided by Dr. Scott Faulkner shows his brother Gary Brooks Faulkner at the Denver International Airport en route to Pakistan.
Dr. Scott Faulkner/AP
Washington
Gary Brooks Faulkner, the 鈥淎merican ninja鈥� arrested in Pakistan carrying a pistol, sword, dagger, and other military equipment, apparently was trying to hunt down Osama bin Laden. Was he working for the CIA? Or any other secretive arm of the US government?
No, we think not. Well, anything is possible 鈥� that selling-arms-to-Iran-to-raise-cash-for-the-contras adventure at first seemed preposterous, too 鈥� but the fact is that, according to what has been made public so far, Mr. Faulkner鈥檚 adventure seems to have more in common with Chuck Norris action movies than with any actual paramilitary activities of US intelligence.
First of all, Faulkner was the spear tip of his own plot. Generally speaking, US intelligence in the past has employed locals or other third parties for its more aggressive clandestine activities. Remember all those plots to assassinate Fidel Castro? The ones that involved, among other things, giving Mr. Castro a poisoned cigar, or luring him to examine an exploding seashell? (No, we鈥檙e not making those things up.) They envisioned dissident Cubans 鈥� or in some cases, the Mafia 鈥� as the people who were supposed to carry them out.
Second, Faulkner seems to have been tramping around Pakistan鈥檚 wilderness areas on his own. US intelligence paramilitary actions center on teams. In the 2001 opening of the Afghanistan war, in which US and local forces toppled Taliban leaders and sent them fleeing into the hills, CIA personnel did operate on horseback in the hinterlands. But they traveled in groups and worked with local allies of the Afghan Northern Alliance.
Third, there鈥檚 the publicity. His brother Dr. Scott Faulkner is on cable news talking openly about Faulkner鈥檚 motives, health, and faith 鈥� he was on NBC鈥檚 "Today" show on Wednesday, for instance. Now, even spies can鈥檛 always control their relatives. But in this case Dr. Faulkner is an Air Force veteran. We鈥檙e guessing that if the government was really involved he鈥檇 be conveniently in the Caribbean on vacation.
All that said, Gary Brooks Faulkner was arrested in an area widely rumored to hide Al Qaeda鈥檚 top leaders. Chitral is a mountainous region on Pakistan鈥檚 border with Afghanistan that is so remote it has until recently been cut off from the outside world by winter snows for months at a time. It鈥檚 a place where it is even difficult for the US to fly Predator drones.
And you can bet that the US still wants very badly to catch Osama bin Laden. US officials long have downplayed Mr. Bin Laden's importance to Al Qaeda, saying that even absent him, Islamist extremism would persist. But in February, then-Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair told Congress in an annual estimation of threats to the US that 鈥渨e assess that at least until Usama Bin Ladin and [aide] Ayman al-Zawahiri are dead or captured, al Qa鈥檌da will retain its resolute intent to strike the [US] Homeland.鈥�
Stopping Al Qaeda from sending operatives to attempt US attacks will require 鈥渆nhanced counterterrorism efforts鈥� in, among other places, the far reaches of Pakistan, said DNI chief Blair.
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