BOZEMAN—
Greg Mortenson doesn’t want to talk about his best-selling “Three Cups of Tea” book, but everybody else does — including his own charity.
Three years ago, “60 Minutes” and author Jon Krakauer alleged that Mortenson fabricated much of the book and mismanaged the charity he co-founded, Central Asia Institute. The allegations pushed Mortenson to lock himself in his bedroom. He fought off depression and eventually underwent heart surgery. The Central Asia Institute lost most of its donors, with contributions plummeting from a high of about $22 million in 2010 to $2.7 million last year.
The organization’s new leaders have slashed the budget and cut school construction programs, but they still had to borrow from savings to meet expenses. Board chairman Steve Barrett is worried about the organization’s long-term financial health.
So Barrett and the other board members are calling on Mortenson to help reverse the skid by appearing in promotional videos and resuming the speaking engagements he put on hold in 2011. Mortenson, who said he’s feels healthier than he has in 18 years, has reluctantly agreed.
“There’s a lot of pressure on me to go out and start talking to the public and the media, which I was reluctant to do. Not only because things kind of quieted down and I’m kind of liking my life, but I also don’t want to have to open up all these cans of worms again,” he told The Associated Press in an interview at his Bozeman home on Tuesday.
“I feel like a criminal coming back,” he added.
He knows the questions that will dog him. Did he make up the story about how he decided to devote his life to building schools? Was he really kidnapped by the Taliban when visiting a remote part of northwestern Pakistan? Did he lie to sell books?
Mortenson doesn’t relish the prospect of having to answer those questions, but that’s exactly what Central Asia Institute wants. The organization wants Mortenson to tell his side of the story in hopes that it can move past the “60 Minutes” piece and get back to educating children.
Krakauer told the AP Wednesday that Mortenson must come clean before the public will forgive him. He believes that Central Asia Institute will not prosper as long as Mortenson is its public face.
“Greg needs to go, right now,” Krakauer said. “Until Greg is gone, there is no hope for having an honest organization.”
Barrett, for his part, said Mortenson must be involved in any effort to bring the institute back to financial stability.
“Greg is recognizable, he commands an audience and people want to hear what happened,” Barrett said. “People are going to be wondering, so he has to be a part of it.”
It’s a risky gambit, and Mortenson is not sure if the public will give him a second chance. But he said the Central Asia Institute is doing good work by supporting the education of children, especially girls, in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tajikistan, and it’s up to him to raise funds to make sure it can continue.
“You wish the past could just be done with, but there are still a lot of questions. So I’d like to answer those questions (and) let the public decide, but then let me move on and help those girls and kids overseas,” Mortenson said.
Mortenson apologized for letting people down. He insists the stories in “Three Cups of Tea” are true, though he has changed the telling of some of them since they were published. He also disputes the Montana attorney general’s findings that he enriched himself by taking charter flights on Central Asia Institute’s dime, and by keeping all the speakers’ fees and the royalties from books the organization bought and gave away.
An attorney general’s investigation resulted in Mortenson reimbursing the organization more than $1.1 million, removing him from any financial decisions and making wholesale changes to the organization’s leadership.
Mortenson said he plans to eventually leave the organization. First, he wants to help raise contributions so they match expenses. Then, he wants to see the graduation of the first wave of girls who entered Central Asia Institute’s schools built in Afghanistan about a decade ago.
He still is the highest-paid employee of Central Asia Institute, drawing $169,000 in salaries and benefits last year.
If he left Central Asia Institute, Mortenson said he would go on a long trip overseas before pursuing new projects advocating for girls’ education. He said he has been quietly helping groups working in Uganda and South Sudan.
He also has not shelved his writing career. He said he has written enough during the past two years to have material for three books, all about empowering girls and women. But he said he is under pressure to write a book in response to 60 Minutes and Krakauer.
He said he won’t do it.
“Some people like to make themselves look good by making others look bad. It’s not in my nature to make others look bad,’ he said.
A Glance at the Disputed Passages in ‘Three Cups of Tea’
Greg Mortenson’s best-selling book “Three Cups of Tea” came under intense scrutiny after 60 Minutes, author Jon Krakauer and some people in the book said some of the stories were fabricated. Here’s a look at some of those stories, what is being disputed and Mortenson’s response in a recent interview with The Associated Press:
Mortenson’s Descent from K2:
Three Cups of Tea: Mortenson stumbled upon the Pakistani village of Korphe in fall 1993 after trekking from the base camp of K2, the world’s second-highest peak. He spent days in the village recovering from the descent.
The dispute: Mortenson could not have wandered to Korphe on that trip because it is on the opposite side of the Braldu River, which could not be crossed without reaching Mortenson’s original destination on the opposite shore, the village of Askole. Author Jon Krakauer says no bridge crossing existed. Krakauer says he interviewed a climber and others who confirmed a bridge was at that location before and after that period, but not at the time Mortenson was there.
Mortenson’s response: Mortenson insists he went to Korphe over a narrow footbridge, and disputes Krakauer’s assertions to the contrary. Mortenson has acknowledged that he spent only a few hours there, not days as was depicted in the book.
Mortenson’s promise to build a school
Three Cups of Tea: Mortenson promised the villagers of Korphe that he would build them a school, after they nursed him back to health. That promise forever changed his life, and he dedicated himself to building schools in Central Asia.
The dispute: Since Mortenson never went to Korphe, he couldn’t have promised to build them a school. However, he did promise the villagers of Khane to the southeast that he would build them a school, but he reneged on that promise and instead built it in Korphe. A fundraising plea written by Mortenson in 1994 backs up the claim that he wanted to build the school in Khane, and it makes no mention of Korphe.
Mortenson’s response: Mortenson now says he visited both Korphe and Khane villages during that 1993 trip, and promised the residents of both that he would build schools for them. He says he planned to first build the Khane school but then switched to Korphe after finding a lack of local support and corruption in the first.
Mortenson’s Kidnapping
Three Cups of Tea: Mortenson was kidnapped and held hostage by militants in the remote Pakistani region of Waziristan. They took his passport and money, kept him under armed guard and monitored his every movement. He won his freedom after asking for a Quran and telling his captors that his wife was expecting a child.
The dispute: People who were there described Mortenson as a guest in Waziristan, not a hostage. A photo shows him with his supposed captors, with Mortenson brandishing an AK-47.
Mortenson’s response: Mortenson stands by his story, though he says he regrets the unflattering descriptions of his captors in “Three Cups of Tea.”
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