From the Department of Bad Ideas: vigilante counterterrorism

Today’s AP story about Gary Brooks Faulkner, the American construction worker who went on a solo hunt for Osama bin Laden, has been getting a fair bit of play across the blogosphere. But Faulkner isn’t the only Jack Bauer-wannabe we’ve seen trying his hand at independent anti-terrorism. Six years ago, Afghan police arrested a former ...

SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images
SHAH MARAI/AFP/Getty Images

Today's AP story about Gary Brooks Faulkner, the American construction worker who went on a solo hunt for Osama bin Laden, has been getting a fair bit of play across the blogosphere. But Faulkner isn't the only Jack Bauer-wannabe we've seen trying his hand at independent anti-terrorism.

Today’s AP story about Gary Brooks Faulkner, the American construction worker who went on a solo hunt for Osama bin Laden, has been getting a fair bit of play across the blogosphere. But Faulkner isn’t the only Jack Bauer-wannabe we’ve seen trying his hand at independent anti-terrorism.

Six years ago, Afghan police arrested a former U.S. Green Beret in Kabul who was running his own torture chamber. Jonathan Keith Idema — who, incidentally, also went by the nickname "Jack" — was found leading a group of six others in a bid to root out bin Laden:

A convicted felon, former Special Forces soldier and plaintiff against Fox News and Steven Spielberg’s DreamWorks company, Idema contended that he and his team of Americans and Afghans were closing in on al Qaeda[‘s] leader.

Though Idema got a ten-year prison sentence for stringing up eight Afghans by their feet for 12 days, he got off light in the end, serving less than half of his jail term after Afghan President Hamid Karzai gave him an official pardon. Still, the episode is a pretty good reminder that fighting terrorism is perhaps best left to the professionals.

Brian Fung is an editorial researcher at FP.
Read More On Terrorism

More from Foreign Policy

Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.
Children are hooked up to IV drips on the stairs at a children's hospital in Beijing.

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak

Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.
Henry Kissinger during an interview in Washington in August 1980.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage

The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.
A Ukrainian soldier in helmet and fatigues holds a cell phone and looks up at the night sky as an explosion lights up the horizon behind him.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine

The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi
Illustrated portraits of Reps. MIke Gallagher, right, and Raja Krishnamoorthi

The Masterminds

Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.