If you want a job done right you have to do it yourself:

A 52-year-old American citizen who said he was searching for Osama bin Laden was detained in Pakistan near the border with Afghanistan this week, Pakistani police said Tuesday.

The Californian named Gary Brooks Faulkner was carrying a pistol, a sword, night-vision equipment and Christian religious books, said Mumtaz Ahmed, a police chief in the area.

Mr. Faulkner is just lucky to be alive. Chitral Today has more:

He went missing on Sunday night after duping a police constable deployed for his security.

Mohammad Jafar, DPO, said that a heavy contingent of police rushed to the valley from Chitral and spotted him in the forest of Shiekhandeh after a hectic search of about 10 hours.

He was brought to Chitral city.

During initial interrogation, the American national said that he was going to Nooristan on a ‘mission to decapitate Osama bin Laden’ and his four accomplices who posed a constant threat to America.

I guess that explains the sword…

Update:
As details emerge the story gets even crazier but Gary’s brother insists that he’s not insane:

Dr. Faulkner said his brother is not crazy, no matter how improbable his quest may appear to those outside the family.

“I’m a physician — I would know if my brother was schizophrenic or bipolar,” he said. “He’s very passionate,” he added, describing his brother’s 8-year hunt for the terror chief as “pretty bold.”

“I think more people wish they had that kind of passion in their lives.”

How long do you think it will take for someone to pitch this guy a reality show?

Details are pretty light but all ended well and with the pair in custody:

All gates at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida will be open Tuesday after being temporarily closed after a heavily armed man and woman were taken into custody when they tried to enter the facility without authorization, an Air Force spokeswoman said.

They were stopped at a gate at the base that houses the headquarters for U.S. troops in Iraq and Afghanistan early Monday evening after they could not show proper identification, Senior Airman Katherine Holt said. A search of the vehicle after they were detained found military-style uniforms and gear and several “rifle-type” weapons, Holt said.

Related Links
MacDill Air Force Base
GlobalSecurity.org entry
Wikipedia entry

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more:

Neighbors offered diverging descriptions of Shahzad but agreed that he kept to himself. One, Brenda Thurman, said Shahzad had told her husband he worked on Wall Street, while another neighbor, Audrey Sokol, said she thought he worked in nearby Norwalk.

Thurman, 37, said he lived in Shelton with his wife and two small children until last year.

“He was a little bit strange,” she said. “He didn’t like to come out during the day.”

Sokol, a teacher who lives next door to Shahzad’s old house, said that he would wave and say hello and that he seemed normal to her.

At least 35 are dead:

Female suicide bombers detonated explosions that rocked two subway stations in central Moscow during rush hour on Monday morning, killing at least 35 people, officials said.

“It was a terrorist act carried out by the female suicide bombers,” said Moscow Mayor Yury Luzhkov, citing Russia’s intelligence agency, the Federal Security Service. “They were specifically timed — for … the train was nearing the station — to make the most damage.

“The blast was caused by 300 to 400 grams of explosives,” he said.

A Web site associated with Chechen separatists claimed responsibility for the attacks. Chechnya is located in an area of Russia known as the North Caucasus, located between the Black and Caspian Seas.

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Update:

The New York Times has photos.

Update:

It looks like Gadahn is still on the run:

“Our initial impression was that the guy was Adam Gadahn but that information now looks incorrect,” a security official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

The arrested man was believed to be an American who goes by the alias of Abu Yahya. Gadahn is known to have used a similar alias. “Probably the name and his origin caused the confusion,” the official said.

Original Post:

Some reports say he is in custody:

After some confusion in the intial reports, the Associated Press quoted Pakistani officials confirming the arrest of Osama bin Laden’s mouthpiece.

The Dawn, Karachi’s English-language newspaper, broke the news with a photo of a man being taken away with a bag on his head.

Gadahn was bagged just hours after releasing a new internet video urging American Muslims to go on shooting sprees like Maj. Nidal Hasan’s at Fort Hood last year.

He is the first American to be charged with treason since World War II.

If convicted, he faces the death penalty.

While others aren’t so sure:

A senior Pakistani government official told CNN that Gadahn was arrested Sunday in Karachi, but a U.S. intelligence official said there appears to be no validity to reports of Gadahn’s arrest. Other U.S. officials also said they have no indication that Gadahn has been captured.

CNN also has some background on the traitor:

Gadahn grew up on a California farm, and was home-schooled until age 17. A year later he moved in with his paternal grandparents, who were secular Jews. He converted to Islam at the Islamic Society of Orange County, California, but was banned from the mosque two years later after hitting its chairman, Haitham Bundjaki.

In 1997 Gadahn began working for a California charity suspected of having ties to al Qaeda. He moved to Pakistan in 1998.

His family has said they last heard from him in 2002. In 2004, the FBI identified him as part of an al Qaeda cell that was planning attacks aimed at disrupting that year’s presidential election in the United States.

In October 2004, he began appearing in disguise in al Qaeda videos. Gadahn dropped the disguise in 2006.

In 2008, he renounced his U.S. citizenship and destroyed his passport in another al Qaeda video.

Of course, his FBI most wanted page has more information as well.

Related:
al Qaeda’s Adam Yahiye Gadahn Warns of Attacks Worse Than 9/11
Al Qaeda Web Ad Promises a Big Surprise
Adam Gadahn Threatens Bush in New al Qaeda Video
American al Qaeda: Adam Gadan Video Coming Soon
Adam Yahiye Gadahn (Azzam the American): al Qaeda Targeting U.S. Embassies