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| Greg Mortenson |
Questioned is the seminal story in the book telling how Mortenson stumbled into the village of Korphe after failing to summit Pakistan's K2.
"It's a beautiful story and it's a lie," Jon Krakauer, the author ofInto Thin Airand Into The Wild, tells CBS. Krakauer was an early supporter of Mortenson but, according to CBS, withdrew support for his charities after a few years over concerns about how they were being managed.
Since then, Krakauer and others have begun to question Mortenson's account of events in Three Cups of Tea. Krakauer says the story of visiting Korphe in 1993 is untrue.
CBS questions another narrative in the book, one in which Mortenson claims he was kidnapped by the Taliban and held for several days. A photo showing Mortenson with his alleged kidnappers is staged, and the people in the photo, some of which60 Minutes tracked down, are not Taliban, the program says.
Despite the allegations, Krakauer cautions that Mortenson is "not Bernie Madoff."
"Let's be clear. He has done a lot of good. He has helped thousands of students in Pakistan and Afghanistan."
Mortenson, who got the famous 60 Minutes ambush interview treatment at a book signing, refused to talk to the network. He did, however, defend himself, issuing a statement after the segment aired.
In it, he insists the Korphe story is true and answers other criticisms:
"The time about our final days on K2 and ongoing journey to Korphe village and Skardu is a compressed version of events that took place in the fall of 1993."
