Author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson — once praised by the Pentagon for his charitable works in Pakistan — is firing back after a “60 Minutes” investigation alleging that his inspirational multimillion seller “Three Cups of Tea” is filled with inaccuracies and that his charitable organization has taken credit for building schools that don’t exist.
“I hope these allegations and attacks, the people doing these things, know this could be devastating for tens of thousands of girls, for the sake of Nielsen ratings and Emmys,” Mortenson told his hometown newspaper, the Chronicle of Bozeman, Montana, in a phone interview Friday.
In what so far has been his only direct contact with the media since the details of the “60 Minutes” report appeared, Mortenson insisted to the newspaper that he had been ambushed by the CBS broadcast and not given a chance to defend himself.
He told the newspaper that he had spent 18 years doing charitable work, that “60 Minutes” had spent months probing him, but didn’t contact him until “the 11th hour” — March 30 — to give him a chance to respond.
“This could be devastating," he told the newspaper. “It’s very difficult when you’re being stalked, bullied and harassed.”
Viking, the book’s publisher, told The New York Times in a statement Monday that in the wake of the report, it will review the book’s contents with Mortenson.
**Disputed assertions
**The report, which aired Sunday night, cited “Into the Wild” author Jon Krakauer as among the doubters of Mortenson’s story of being lost while mountain-climbing in rural Pakistan in 1993 and stumbling upon the village of Korphe, where the kindness of local residents inspired him to build a school. The “60 Minutes” story drew upon observations from the porters who joined Mortenson on his mountain trip in Pakistan and dispute his being lost. They say he only visited Korphe a year later.
The report also cast doubt on Mortenson’s assertion in his book that he was kidnapped by pro-Taliban fighters. “60 Minutes” reported that it had tracked down the men who appeared in a picture with Mortenson and that they had denied abducting him or being members of the Taliban. One man charged the writer’s version was “totally false,” a tale told “to sell his book.”
Mortenson told the newspaper that the men had “detained” him for eight days and kept his money and his passport. He insisted that at the time, “I thought it best to befriend the people detaining me."
But the most damaging allegations in the CBS report involve the charitable work done by Mortenson and CAI.
The “60 Minutes” report alleges that numerous schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan that Mortenson’s Central Asia Institute is said to have established either don’t exist or were built by others. According to the CAI’s website, the institute has “successfully established over 170 schools” and helped educate over 68,000 students, with an emphasis on girls’ education."
Mortenson provided the newspaper with a letter, written by Kroft and dated last Wednesday, in which the correspondent alleges that “a number of people” had questioned whether there was “inadequate separation” between the charity’s finances and Mortenson’s personal financial interests.
Rest the link is here
http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/42647480/ns/today-books/?GT1=43001
I so wanted to read this book but now I am not interested in it any more.
