Gary Brooks Faulkner, the Greeley man detained at the Pakistani-Afghan border Sunday night, has but one mission in his life: to kill Osama bin Laden, Faulkner’s brother said Tuesday.

“He’s not insane; he’s not psychotic; he’s as normal as you and I,” Dr. Scott Faulkner said Tuesday afternoon. “But his passion is to track down Osama bin Laden and to kill him.”

Gary Faulkner, 50, was detained in the mountains of Pakistan late Sunday after Pakistani authorities found him carrying a pistol, a 40-inch sword, a dagger and night-vision goggles.

He reportedly was attempting to cross the border from the Chitral region into the nearby Afghan province of Nuristan because he had “heard bin Laden was living there,” according to Mumtaz Ahmad Khan, the top police officer in the Chitral region.

On May 30, Scott Faulkner dropped his brother off at Denver International Airport for his sixth trip to Pakistan. Gary Faulkner’s purpose for this trip was the same as the five before: Kill bin Laden, or at least bring him to justice.

He was due back Monday.

This trip was especially important because Gary Faulkner’s kidneys are failing, his brother said. He has been receiving kidney-dialysis treatment at North Colorado Medical Center in Greeley, where he has lived and worked for the past three months.

Gary Faulkner arrived June 3 in the town of Bumburate and stayed in a hotel there. He was assigned a police guard, which is common for foreigners visiting remote parts of Pakistan.

When he checked out without informing police, officers began looking for him, Khan told The Associated Press.

Faulkner was picked up in a forest in the Chitral region late Sunday.

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

Not laughing now

Chitral and Nuristan are among several rumored hiding places for bin Laden along the mountainous border between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment generally deny the possibility that the al-Qaeda leader is hiding somewhere along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, as Western intelligence agencies believe.

Faulkner was questioned Tuesday by intelligence officials in Peshawar, Pakistan’s main northwestern city. He has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Scott Faulkner, Gary Faulkner’s younger brother and an internist in Fort Morgan, said his brother has been obsessed with capturing or killing bin Laden since the 9/11 attacks. Before each trip to Pakistan — he had a valid visa each time — he would work out in the gym, hike and prepare himself for the rugged terrain, Scott Faulkner said.

A devout Christian, Gary Faulkner was bent on tracking down the mastermind of the most deadly terrorist attack on the United States.

“This was a direct attack on U.S. soil, where 3,000 Americans were killed, and there is a bounty on his head,” Scott Faulkner said. “If Osama showed himself in Denver, (Gary Faulkner) would be happy to get him here.”

Gary Faulkner paid for his trips by working construction jobs. He sold his construction equipment to finance his latest trip and was able to get dialysis in southern Pakistan before he began tracking bin Laden, Scott Faulkner said.

With his long, bushy beard and passable language skills, Faulkner was able to get weapons and move around the countryside with relative ease, his brother said. It’s not surprising that he purchased a sword.

“It’s Pakistan,” Scott Faulkner said. “Many people there have swords.”

“God has got his back”

Gary Faulkner was born in California, and his family moved to Fort Collins in 1968. He spent several years in Central and South America, building schools and churches. He traveled with a Bible and a devout belief that he needed to exact revenge for 9/11.

“My brother never lived in fear,” Scott Faulkner said. “My brother understood God has got his back.”

Faulkner — who never has served in the military — has been arrested several times in Colorado over the years, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records. He served prison sentences in Cañon City at least twice, in 1981 and 1986, on burglary and larceny convictions, according to CBI records.

In 1996, Faulkner was sentenced to one year in the Denver County Jail for a domestic-violence assault conviction, according to Denver court records.

More recently, Faulkner was arrested in Greeley in 2006 on a misdemeanor “failure to appear” warrant from another jurisdiction, according to records.

Marching, yelling

Hugo Corral owns Hugo’s barbershop near Faulkner’s home in Greeley.

He said he had seen Faulkner marching around in a black T-shirt and camouflage clothes yelling and swearing. He would march, stop, salute, then march some more, Corral said.

Stacey Stienmetz, who lives across the courtyard from Faulkner in a downtown Greeley apartment complex, described his neighbor as a nice guy — talkative but not at all radical.

“If anything,” said Stienmetz, “I would have thought he would be in the hospital” because of the dialysis.

Property records show Faulkner’s apartment building is partly owned by his younger brother. Stienmetz said Faulkner lived there for about two years working on renovation projects, then disappeared for a while and returned about three months ago.

When he left in May, he told people he was going to Pakistan to climb a mountain.

Scott Faulkner said his brother needs dialysis three times a week, but otherwise could live for another 20 years. In the meantime, he is on a donor list for a new kidney, Scott Faulkner said.

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

“I think Osama is responsible for bloodshed in the world, and I want to kill him,” Khan quoted Faulkner as saying.

Staff writer Kieran Nicholson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.