Questions over Greg Mortenson's stories

We managed to track down the two porters who accompanied Mortenson, and spoke to them in Pakistan's remote Hushe Valley. They also told us that Mortenson did not stumble into Korphe lost and alone, and that he didn't go to Korphe at all until nearly a year later on another visit.

Kroft: He did build a school in Korphe.

Krakauer: He did. ...and it's a good thing. But if you go back and read the first few chapters of that book, you realize, "I'm being taken for a ride here."

It's not a solitary example. Upon close examination, some of the most touching and harrowing tales in Mortenson's books appear to have been either greatly exaggerated or made up out of whole cloth.

Mortenson (in an interview): One of the most compelling experiences I had was in July of '96...I went to the area to find a place to build a school. And what happened is, I got kidnapped by the Taliban for eight days.

The kidnapping story was featured in Three Cups of Tea, and referred to in his follow-up best seller, Stones Into Schools, with a 1996 photograph of his alleged captors.

We managed to locate four men who were there when the photo was taken - two of them actually appear in the picture. All of them insist they are not Taliban and that Greg Mortenson was not kidnapped. They also gave us another photo of the group with Mortenson holding the AK-47.

One of the men, Mansur Khan Mahsud, is the research director of a respected think tank in Islamabad and has produced scholarly articles published in the U.S.

Until recently, he had no idea that he had been shown as a kidnapper in a best-selling book.

We spoke with Mahsud via Skype. He told us he and the other people in the photograph were Mortenson's protectors in Waziristan - not his abductors.

Kroft: The story, as Mr. Mortenson tells it, is that he was held for eight days, and won you over by asking for a Koran and promising to build schools in the area. Is that true?

Mahsud: This is totally false, and he is lying. He was not kidnapped.

Kroft: Who are these people that are also in the picture?

Mahsud: Some are my cousin. Some are our friends from our village.

Kroft: Well, why do you think Mr. Mortenson would write this?

Mahsud: To sell his book.

Another place where no one has done much checking is into the financial records of Mortenson's non-profit organization, the Central Asia Institute, which builds and funds the schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, and is located in Bozeman, Mont., where Mortenson lives.

Mortenson says the charity took in $23 million in contributions last year - some it from thousands of school children who emptied their piggy banks to help its "Pennies for Peace" program, and some of it from large fundraisers.

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[bridog44]

What a flippin' phony. L Ron Hubbards Protege'. Just a goofball with a wild imagination he happened to put down on paper. Why can't he get a real job and put his talenst to use instead of ripping people off and trying to fool everyone by his manipulation and trickery.

UNBELEIVABLE. This guy belongs in Scientology with the rest of the phonies in the world who think they are smarter, better, and don't have to work for a living and take their earnings off the backs of others.

Truly shameful.

[ECW0096]

Interesting. Having read all 354 comments (whew) and found little light, I poked around and read the Montana DOJ's investigative report (https://dojmt-zippykid.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2012_0405_FINAL-REPORT-FOR-DISTRIBUTION.pdf). Mortenson settled for more than a million dollars.

The articles that led to the 60 Minutes story are also available at the Charity Watch website: http://www.charitywatch.org/articles/CentralAsiaInstitute.html

Krakauer's short book Three Cups of Deceit (Kindle short) is also enlightening.

These pieces actually do shed light on what happened for anyone who cares.

[Katididit77]

Hi..I am in support of Greg Mortenson and his co-author, David Relin, in regards to the "Three Cups of Tea" book that was published, along with numerous pictures, to help substantiate his and his organization's validity.
An attack by another author who wrote.."Into Thin Air", of which self-same author admits that he had to rely upon the 'reconstructed' stories of his fellow climbers, because Mr. Krakauer's brain was not 'working', (his own words) and he could not process what was going on without the 'fill-in-the-blanks' provided by his fellow climbers, seems tantamount towards calling the book authered by Mr. Mortenson with the assist of Mr. David Relin as 'The pot calling the Kettle, black!.'
Then, Mr. Krakauer, has the supposed right to say that his book: "Into The Wild" was actually based upon fact, when, it is classified as 'fiction'.? He is , it seems, good at gathering notes from other people who should be given credit. Was he, himself, along with the young man who made his trek into the Alasken wilderness and then watched as that young man died? Doubt it..just as I doubt the 'put-down' upon Mr. Mortenson and David Relin's book: "Three Cups of Tea"
Who's kidding who, Mr. Krakauer? Thanks...Kat

[raidernation99]

I apologize for misunderstanding. I was not trying to present an Afghanistan accent. You took my reply out of context. Not even close to being a racist. Again, I am very sorry.

[lillian04]

I just started reading Three Cups of Tea a few weeks ago. None of what 60 Minutes is saying seems particularly shocking or surprising to me. For example, it probably does cost that much more to promote a book in the U.S. than it does to build 100 schools in Pakistan. I found the story to be engaging and inspiring, but also suspected all along that some of the facts were distorted to make the story flow better. If he had stated only dry facts, would the book have made the best seller list and would people be lining up to hear him speak? I went on the Central Asia Institute's website and noticed that there are only a handful of Board Members, 2 of whom are "emeritus" and no longer living. That he has questionable management skills is not surprising. He never mentions getting an MBA in his book. Lots of would-be successful entrepreneurs have great ideas, but no idea how to implement and even worse, don't seem to understand that commingling of funds makes you look bad. So he can't keep track how many schools he has really founded, but he doesn't seem like a bean counter to me. More an idealist. That's really what the appeal is with 3 Cups of Tea... that you can start with nothing and build a dream, any dream. I think some of his dream for schools in Pakistan is still real, at least I hope so. By the way, this isn't the first time that Americans have invested money into building schools for girls in Pakistan, USAID (part of the State Department) has been doing it for years. I am enjoying the book, but probably won't be donating to his organization. Not because of this 60 Minutes story, but because we need to put our resources to building schools in the U.S. first.

[CrescentBeach]

A lot of people who've commented on the Mortenson story, in particular those who continue to defend Greg, would do well to read a recent piece in Mother Jones on "Motivated Reasoning" and consider whether any of it applies to them. Lots of interesting food for thought about clinging to beliefs notwithstanding evidence to the contrary, reaching conclusions and then cherry-picking facts to support them, and so on. http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney

[youmakeittoughtoregister]

I'm trying to keep an open mind on this topic and I certainly agree with the concept of "motivated reasoning", but I may point out that there is always the question in a discussion of exactly WHO is "clinging to beliefs notwithstanding evidence to the contrary, reaching conclusions and then cherry-picking facts to support them, and so on." Especially the cherry-picking part. Usually it's both sides. For every person CBS comes up with who has made statements supporting their story, others have come forward with either contradictory testimony or explanations based on personal experience in that part of the world. I would also point out that Steve Kroft and John Krakauer BOTH have a vested interest in being right and neither is lacking in ego. In addition, CBS has a rather sketchy history of "fact checking." I would refer you to the Dan Rather vs. George W. Bush debacle. I prefer to stick to the facts rather than insinuating that EITHER side is acting in a cult-like fashion or hell-bent on destroying someone's reputation for their own glorification. As the "facts" seem to be still in question, I'll reserve judgement until more discussion shakes out further information. In the interim, I think what may be clear on both sides is that Mr. Mortensen has a problem with organisation. However, last time I checked, this was not a crime and there are plenty of people much more worthy of the villification I've seen in some of the posts I've read.

[drdianab]

This is the problem with turning real people into icons and heroes. They inevitably end up real people after all and then we vilify them for not meeting our expectations. I have no doubt that Greg Mortensen is not a perfect person, he may indeed have spun events for the sake of a good story and, despite a four star rating from Charity Navigator, his organization may not be flawlessly run. But stop to consider that there are lots of good adventure stories and the notion that the villagers saved Mr. Mortensen or that he survived a kidnapping is not the reason word of mouth made "Three Cups of Tea" a runaway bestseller. The reason this book and the CAI is such a raging success is that we all recognize at a gut level that it is this approach, and not militaristic battering, that will eventually put an end to terrorism and likely a great many other ills the world suffers from. While I applaud 60 Minutes and other such news organizations for upholding truth and accountability, I would urge them to wisely consider what to do with the torch before they weaken the hand that holds it. Failure in this regard will inevitably call their objectivity, intelligence and motives into question. I would urge all concerned, most importantly, those of us who are observing, not to lose sight of the fact that the way Mr. Mortensen may or may not have imparted his principles to us and the skills he may have or lack to run a rapidly growing organization does not mar the truth and beauty of the concept. Perhaps a better application of energy would be to stop picking apart the details and attacking what's wrong and instead step up to what is right and do it better.

[FriendlySkeptic]

http://www.linkedin.com/news?actionBar=&articleID=491175299&ids=0UcP8UcP0NejgIcjAUcP8TcjAQb3wNd3gUe34Vd2MMdPcTc3sNejgIejAOdjsNcjAQ&aag=true&freq=weekly&trk=eml-tod-b-ttle-100

Read this article by philanthropic experts about Greg/CAI, as to whether or not it's "okay" ethically or legally to do what CAI has shown they are doing, when you run an organization. Very informative article for all of us. . .

[seringsenge]

Please visit http://www.gilgitbaltistan.us to learn more about the region where Mortenson started his school projects. We the natives of Gilgit-Baltistan, a region of former princely state of Jammu and Kashmir do have lot of respect for him for providing education to girls in that area. The region has one of the lowest per capita incomes and one of the lowest literacy rates and without support of NGOs like CAI and AKDN, education would be a dream for the majority as more than half of the locals live below the poverty line. Since Pakistan government has failed to provide for the educational needs of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan, it is people like Mortenson who became the hope for us

[daffodil61]

Greg is an American by birth but was not raised in the US. He left here as a 3-month old and was raised in Africa in a very primitive area with no awareness/accounting of the passage of time, business, etc. He was computer illiterate in 1993 when he began his mission to raise $$ for the first school. He does not do the accounting for the institute, nor does he take care of the legal issues. If there are problems in those areas, he is not responsible--he hired experts in those fields to take care of that!! He works like a madman with a harrowing speaking schedule and trips to Central Asia--missing much of his own children's childhood in the process. I see no problem with his retaining control of his intellectual property, such as his books. Nor do I see a problem with his taking a salary out of those proceeds--he has a wife and family who need a roof over their heads and have sacrificed much. Also, he did not author the first book, he hired a journalist, David Oliver Relin, to write the book and it was David's recommendation to "take literary license" in some instances to make the book more readable--such as the condensing of the visits to Korphe into one. The abduction is addressed in the book--he was held against his will and then accepted--this accounts for the pictures, in my mind. It seems that in that society, you are either enemy or family and Greg started out as enemy and then became family--because they grew to know his heart.
His unusual upbringing makes him wired very differently than most people who are used to creature comforts, routine, etc. This is what makes him uniquely suited to building relationships in the poorest areas of war-torn Pakistan and Afghanistan. I am sure he has made mistakes but they are honest ones!! His intent is not to defraud but to build up.
I am not sure I could work with a man like Greg. He works on impulse and to hell with procedure! LOL But that would my due to MY own hangups, not his. Shame on the people who found they could not stand to work with such an unstructured person and then sought to tear down the good he does, so their own egos are left intact. I love that the author states that Greg Mortenson is devoid of ego--speaks volumes about Greg's charcter!! I think "60 Minutes" simply didn't do a thorough job--trying to make deadlines, etc. Read the statement from the CAI board--they know the whole truth.

[FriendlySkeptic]

I understand some of what you're saying and pray that all will work out for the good that CAI does as you wish, also. However, (and this is a big however) you so lightly smooth over rather serious charges (that come with more than a modicum of proof) that are serious. Don't talk about egos of others who want to think the worst, as there are egos here who similarly want to believe all is well--when clearly, it is not, and may never have been at all. And to say "Read the statement from the CAI board--they know the truth." is not logical-it's almost laugh out loud, ridiculous. Remember, the head of the Board is GREG,himself (and two other "go along friends"-read their bios)--that's it. And then you go on & blame the journalist for taking literary license--not right A. you've "assumed" that Relin made the errors and not Greg(condensing is not the issue--making up incidents out of whole cloth, is and THAT is what is seriously alleged--not "condensing"). And B. Greg could have said to author if that was the case, "Hey, you made that whole thing up--please don't do that" and he didn't. And "on the road" he REPEATS, not dispels these falsehoods. Is the author along the ride, shocking him with electric shocks if Greg doesn't keep up the charade that you're claiming author forced Greg to comply with? Really?!? Also, NO one said that they didn't praise what good Greg did--not 60 Minutes, not Krakauer, no one. So don't go there and attack something that didn't happen. And you can't blame the accountants for lack of accountability, either. Why? Greg makes the rules around there-didn't you understand that? He wanted rules flouted--for control-That's why many Donors who saw these egregious problems left, good Board members, staff members, ex-friends, etc. Greg was/is a control-freak and more importantly, he shouldn't be in control as he did things that weren't right, he was told they weren't right and he did them anyway. He's truly not the hero some are making him out to be, regardless of the great things he has accomplished. Sorry, but your idol has clay feet and that's the reality. You've minimized serious issues that need correcting. I hope that Greg's work continues, but Greg needs to do the "pitch" (but with reality) and let the real leadership rest with a trusted and true leader--and that is not going to be Greg. Also, there are many other charities working in the area that are doing good work, fully accountable, experts at handling schools & money and they're just not as self-promoting--Look up Aga Khan Foundation and many others (google them), please. I'm not sure "being wired differently" is going to be enough to be acceptable to Charity watchdogs, IRS, donors, etc., is it?