Three Cups of Deceit: The True Story of Greg Mortenson's Fall from Humanitarian Hero - Perfect for Book Clubs & Social Justice Discussions

First off, I have read "Three Cups of Tea" before any of this negative publicity came out. I thoroughly enjoyed it and would quickly have recommended it to anyone who asked. One of the most compelling things about it was the story itself and the experiences Mortenson relayed in it helped give it credibility. I have not read his second book.I saw the 60 Minutes story and it did raise concerns about the book, but I was not totally convinced. Since then I have seen several other articles that also raised similar questions as the 60 Minutes interview. I have also seen some rebuttals of the charges against Mortenson, but I've found them all to be lacking. They give generalities about why Mortenson is not lying or dishonest or just mistaken, but most give nothing that concrete, though maybe a few. Mostly they just "no he couldn't have lied, Greg's a great guy and he's done all this great work" sort of stuff. The website Outside Online did interview Mortenson for his rebuttal of these charges and even in this Mortenson does admit to some "license" with the story. For one example, in "Three Cups of Tea" Greg gives the impression he was in Korphe for many days resting up after his weakened condition from the K2 attempt and the villagers basically nursed him back to health...a very touching narrative that is meant to show how generous and hospitable the people were and was sort of the "defining moment" of when he decided to go on this altruistic path of building schools in all these remote places. But even Mortenson now admits he was only there a few hours and that the same day he met back up with his climbing partner Scott Darsney in another town. Hardly enough time to be nursed back to health.Outside Online also interviewed Scott Darsney and he did say he felt Krakauer took some of what he said out of context and that it was "certainly plausible" Greg could have (not did) ended up in the village of Korphe after his failed K2 attempt despite Krakauer saying he did not. I tried posting a link but I guess Amazon doesn't like that.But shortly thereafter Outside Online actually posted this blog which indicated that after further research it did NOT seem likely Mortenson ended up in Korphe after his failed K2 climb. Again, I can't post the link but you can go to the Outside Online website and search the blog on April 27, 2011 by Grayson Schaffer titled "Can't Get There From Here." (it also has a link in the blog to the Darsney interview mentioned above as well as Mortenson's rebuttal to Krakauer)One excerpt from the above article - "...Outside has learned that Mortenson's revised Korphe account has serious problems. Even if Mortenson had got lost between Korofong and Askole, Outside now believes it would have been nearly impossible to end up in Korphe. What's more, we've found a troubling lack of documentation regarding Mortenson's climbing record in Nepal."So anyway, as for this book itself, it is very thorough and well documented. You get names of people Krakauer interviewed. This is not just one or two disgruntled people, this is person after person including former CAI board members, associates in Pakistan and Afghanistan, well-known mountaineers, and even a foreign researcher who has spent many years in Afghanistan and the surrounding area with one of the tribes Mortenson proudly parades in his second book. Krakauer lists names for almost all of them so it's easy enough to verify who they are if that's what you feel you need to do. He even has a picture of Mortenson gleefully holding an AK-47 with a group of men...men who Mortenson actually showed a picture of in his book and said they were Taliban who kidnapped him for eight days. I guess kidnappers let their abductees play with their weapons now.Even if you take into account the "creative license" of writing and that perhaps there was just some "different points of view" of certain events, Mortenson's stories are still full of holes. But what is really eye-opening is that CAI pays for ALL of Mortenson's trips and advertising to promote his books...and yet they receive absolutely no proceeds from the book itself. And does Greg fly commercial? No, he has charter jets take him everywhere. Additionally, Mortenson even used CAI money to buy tens of thousands of copies of his book from retailers that he handed out at some of his conferences. He buys from retailers because it a.) allows him to receive the royalties from it and b.)it contributes to the number used to rank him on the bestseller list...neither of these things would happen if he got them directly from the publisher (for much less money). And the real icing on the cake is that over all the years, one of the most common complaints from those who resigned from CAI was that Mortenson absolutely refused to ever provide basic accountability information, like receipts or expense reports for what he was doing with the money.I won't even get into the question of how effective (or ineffective) the schools CAI has or has claimed to have built. That certainly does not bode well for Mortenson either.The bottom line is that CAI seems to be a organization that has a noble goal and Mortenson may very well have started out with good intentions, but these do not justify Mortenson's lying or his financial irresponsibility. My advice would be to stop giving to CAI until Mortenson steps down and a new board of directors takes over that is willing to be organized and transparent. When that happens CAI will again be a worthwhile organization to support. Until that time there are plenty of other noble charities to support that let you know exactly where your money goes.