>Seems the trouble is just starting.
By MATT VOLZ, Associated Press:
Montana’s attorney general is scrutinizing the charity run by “Three Cups of Tea” co-author Greg Mortenson after reports questioned whether Mortenson benefited from money donated to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Attorney General Steve Bullock’s announcement Tuesday follows investigations by “60 Minutes” and author Jon Krakauer into inaccuracies in the book and spending by the Bozeman, Mont.-based Central Asia Institute.
Bullock oversees nonprofit corporations operating in the state. He has been in contact with attorneys for the agency, and they have pledged their full cooperation, he said in a statement to The Associated Press.
“While looking into this issue, my office will not jump to any conclusions — but we have a responsibility to make sure charitable assets are used for their intended purposes,” he said in the statement.
“Three Cups of Tea” was released in 2006 and sold more than 3 million copies. That notoriety helped Mortenson grow the Central Asia Institute by generating more than $50 million in donations, Krakauer said.
According to the charity’s website, it has “successfully established over 170 schools” and helped educate over 68,000 students, with an emphasis on girls’ education.
Krakauer, author of “Into the Wild,” cast doubt on Mortenson’s story of being lost in 1993 while mountain climbing in rural Pakistan and stumbling upon the village of Korphe, where the residents helped him recuperate and he promised to build a school. Krakauer called it a “myth.”
Brick ONeil 