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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Huckleberries Online

Ron Judd: Mortenson’s Cups Of Bull

Feeling a bit betrayed by what now appears to be a web of lies that formed the basis of Greg Mortenson's bestselling "Three Cups of Tea" and the massive charity that grew from it? Join the club. In 2001, five years before Mortenson's story turned into a book that would rocket off the bestseller charts, he sold the same tale to me. And I bought it. In my own feeble defense, Mortenson came to me with some automatic mountain-cred: an introduction by Seattle's Tom Hornbein, the legendary Mount Everest climber who then served as a member of the board of the Central Asia Institute, Mortenson's charity to build schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The reputation of Hornbein, the longtime head of the University of Washington's anesthesiology department, is rock-solid/Ron Judd, Seattle Times. More here.  (2009 AP file photo: Greg Mortenson and U.S. Navy Adm. Mike Mullen)

Question: Have you read Greg Mortenson's 'Three Cups of Tea'?

D.F. Oliveria

D.F. (Dave) Oliveria joined The Spokesman-Review in 1984. He currently is a columnist and compiles the Huckleberries Online blog and writes about North Idaho in his Huckleberries column.

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