"Three Cups of Tea" - a Fake?

Is the story behind "Three Cups of Tea" a fake?

A controversy has started raging over the CBS programme "60 minutes" where eminent author Jon Krakauer of "Into Thin Air" called the content of 'Three Cups of Tea' fictitious - a fake.

"Three Cups of Tea" attained overnight fame on its publication by Penguin Books in 2006, sold more than three million copies, and has been translated into 47 languages . This book stayed on the best seller list of the New York Times for four years since its publication in 2006.

Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin co-authored the book "Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace ... One School at a Time" published by Penguin in 2006. It is a New York Times Bestseller. Mortenson is also the co-author of the 2009-sequel "Stones into Schools: Promoting Peace with Books, not Bombs, in Afghanistan and Pakistan" - another best-seller. Penguin Book describes Mortenson as "a real-life Indiana Jones."

Greg Mortenson, a mountaineer, shot to fame after he wrote the book "Three Cups of Tea" which, he claimed, was based on his own experiences and encounters. In this book, the author narrates how he lost his way after a failed effort to climb K2, and was rescued by Pakistani villagers in the village of Korphe where he later helped in building a girls school.

In Three Cups of Tea, the author made the unverified claim that he had been held captive by the Talibans for several days before being released.

Through his books Mortenson argues that education, especially girls education in remote places of Pakistan and Afganistan, is the best way to fight against Talibans and destroy the root cause for growing extremism in the region.

"It's a beautiful story, and it's a lie," Krakauer tells the CBS program. Mr. Krakauer, a climber, has stopped donating to Mortenson's charity. He raised concern over financial mismanagement in Mortenson's organization. He had donated $75,000 to the charity for building more schools in Afganistan & pakistan. He said, "Nobody is overseeing what goes on. He doesn't know how many schools he's built. Nobody knows how much these schools cost," Krakauer said.

Greg Mortenson with local villagers

In reply to this allegation, Mortenson, in an email, said thay are planning to built more than 60 new schools this year.

Though Mortenson said that he ended up in Korphe while returning from his failed attempt to climb K2 in 1993, the locals do not recall any such incident. The CBS programme questioned the veracity of the other incidents narrated in "Three Cups of Tea", especially the one about his kidnap in 1996 by Talibans at Waziristan on the Afghan border.

The photos of kidnappers which Mortenson showed in his next book "Stones into Schools", raised doubts about Mortenson's claim that he was abducted. One of the alleged kidnappers in the photo was recognized as Mansur Khan Mahsud who is actually from Pakistani intelligence. When contacted, Mahsud eventually told CNN that Mortenson's account of his trip to Waziristan "is a pack of lies and not a single word of it is true"

Mortenson’s claimed kidnap by Taliban has been in question since Taliban was not present in 1996 in Waziristan; they arrived in that region only after their fall from power in Afghanistan in 2001.

So far Mr. Mortenson denies all allegation and has sent an email to his supporters stating , the "60 Minutes" interview "paints a distorted picture using inaccurate information, innuendo, and a microscopic focus on one year's (2009) IRS 990 financial, and a few points in the book 'Three Cups of Tea' that occurred almost 18 years ago."

Mortenson is supposed to undergo surgery to close a hole in his heart by next week.

The controversy keeps raging in the meantime.