Jon Krakauer - Three Cups of Deceit

Also by Jon Krakauer

Eiger Dreams

Into the Wild

Into Thin Air

Under the Banner of Heaven

Where Men Win Glory

Copyright 2011 by Jon Krakauer

All rights reserved

Cover photograph: The school at Bozai Gumbaz,

Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan, February 10, 2011

Cover photograph by:

Matthieu Paley/ www.paleyphoto.com

ISBN: 978-1-61452-001-6

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THREE CUPS of DECEIT

How Greg Mortenson, Humanitarian Hero,

Lost His Way

Jon Krakauer

BYLINER ORIGINALS

Dramatis Personae

Greg Mortenson: Executive director and co-founder of the Central Asia Institute (CAI); co-author of Three Cups of Tea ; author of Stones into Schools

David Oliver Relin: Co-author of Three Cups of Tea

Christa Mortenson: Greg s youngest sister, who died in 1992

Mouzafer Ali: Resident of Pakistan s Baltistan region whom Mortenson hired to carry his backpack from the base of K2 to the village of Askole in September 1993

Haji Ali: Chieftain of a Balti village called Korphe, located across the Braldu River from Askole

Scott Darsney: Greg Mortenson s climbing partner on K2 in 1993

Yakub: Friend of Mouzafer Ali whom Darsney hired to carry his backpack from the base of K2 to the village of Askole in 1993

Akhmalu: Expedition cook for Greg Mortenson and his teammates on K2 in 1993; shortly after the expedition ended, Mortenson visited Akhmalu s village, Khane, and promised to build a school there

Erica Stone: Executive director of the American Himalayan Foundation

Jean Hoerni : Theoretical physicist and co-founder of CAI who gave Greg Mortenson $12,000 in 1994 to build his first school in Pakistan, and in 1996 donated $1 million to CAI

Mohammed Ali Changazi: Tour operator and trekking agent who managed the logistics for Mortenson s 1993 K2 expedition; adopted son of Haji Ali

Tara Bishop: Greg Mortenson s wife, a clinical psychologist; the daughter of Barry Bishop

Naimat Gul Mahsud: A member of the Mahsud tribe who met Mortenson in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi in July 1996 and, at Mortenson s request, drove him to Ladha, South Waziristan, the Mahsud ancestral homeland, where he was Mortenson s host

Mansur Khan Mahsud: Director of research at the FATA Research Centre who accompanied Mortenson on sightseeing excursions in South Waziristan in July 1996, during the period Mortenson claims the Taliban held him captive

Sangi Marjan: Commissioner of education in Ladha, South Waziristan, who met with Mortenson in July 1996 to discuss education in Pakistan s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)

Hussein Mohammed: Pseudonym of a member of the Mahsud tribe who is acquainted with Naimat Gul Mahsud

Jennifer Wilson: Jean Hoerni s third wife, who served on the CAI board of directors from 1997 to 2001

Tom Vaughan: Chairman of CAI s board of directors, 1997 2001

Tom Hornbein: American physician and mountaineer renowned for making the first ascent of the West Ridge of Mount Everest in 1963; invited to join the CAI board in 1999, he became its chairman in 2001 and resigned in 2002

Barry Bishop: Tara Bishop s father; Tom Hornbein s teammate on Everest in 1963

Gordon Wiltsie: Eminent photographer and mountaineer, member of the CAI board of directors, 1998 2002

Sally Uhlmann: Businesswoman and member of the CAI board of directors, 2000 2002

King Zaher Shah: King of Afghanistan 1933 1973, who died in 2007

Sadhar Khan: Powerful warlord, or qomandan , in the northern Afghanistan province of Badakhshan

Mostapha Zaher: Grandson of King Zaher Shah

Debbie Raynor: Chief financial officer of CAI, 2003 2004

Daniel Borochoff: President of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog organization

Ghulam Parvi: CAI s program manager in Pakistan, 1996 June 2010

Tanya Rosen: Wildlife researcher and international lawyer who has conducted extensive research in Baltistan

Kate DeClerk: CAI s international program director, 2003 2004

Mike Bryan: Journalist Mortenson hired to ghostwrite an early draft of Stones into Schools

Kevin Fedarko: Journalist who wrote He Fights Terror With Books, the 2003 Parade magazine article that established Mortenson s reputation; second ghostwriter of Stones into Schools

Roshan Khan: Kyrgyz horseman whom Mortenson purportedly promised, in 1999, to build a school in Bozai Gumbaz

Abdul Rashid Khan: Supreme leader of the Afghan Kyrgyz people whom Mortenson met in the Afghan city of Baharak in 2005; father of Roshan Khan

Ted Callahan: American anthropologist and mountaineer Mortenson hired in 2006 to write a report about the feasibility of building a school for Kyrgyz nomads in northeastern Afghanistan s remote Wakhan Corridor

Sarfraz Khan: Pakistani who oversees CAI s programs in northern Pakistan and northern Afghanistan

Whitney Azoy: Cultural anthropologist who has spent many years working in Afghanistan; Ted Callahan s friend and mentor

Colonel Ilyas Mirza: Retired Pakistani military officer who serves as CAI s chief operations director in Islamabad

Haji Osman: Kyrgyz chieftain in the Afghan Pamir near the Bozai Gumbaz school

Ghial Beg: Headman of an Afghan village named Kret in the Wakhan Corridor, where CAI built a school

* * *

Part I

THE CREATION MYTH

When it comes right down to it I am nothing more than a fellow who took a wrong turn in the mountains and never quite managed to find his way home.

Greg Mortenson, Stones into Schools

On March 29 of this year, I attended a lecture Mortenson gave in Cheyenne, Wyoming. As he walked onto the stage in the sold-out arena, more than two thousand men, women, and children leapt to their feet to express their admiration with cheers, whistles, and deafening applause. If we really want to help people, we have to empower people, Mortenson pronounced. And empowering people starts with education. A book cover depicting Afghan girls engrossed in study was projected onto the screen above the stage. So I wrote this book called Three Cups of Tea , he deadpanned. Some of you might have heard about it

Laughter rippled through the crowd. Hoping to get an autograph from Mortenson, hundreds of fans were holding copies of his book, which had spent the previous four years and two months on the New York Times paperback nonfiction bestseller list, and showed every sign of remaining there well into the future. Some five million copies are now in print, including special editions for young readers and very young readers (kindergarten through fourth grade). Moreover, the multitudes who have bought Three Cups haven t merely read it; they ve embraced it with singular passion. Since its publication in 2006, people galvanized by this autobiographical account of Mortenson s school-building adventures have donated more than $50 million to the Central Asia Institute. The book s popularity stems from its forceful, uncomplicated theme terrorism can be eradicated by educating children in impoverished societies and its portrayal of Mortenson as a humble, Gandhi-like figure who has repeatedly risked life and limb to advance his humanitarian agenda.