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Rohullah Qarizada is one of those Afghans you used to see a lot on American TV in the immediate aftermath of the Taliban's fall. Trimly bearded, dapper in Western suit and tie, he heads the Afghan Independent Bar Association in Kabul. Did you know Kabul had a bar association? A few years back, I ran into one of the U.S. prosecutors who helped set it up, with a grant from the Swedish foreign ministry. Mr. Qarizada currently sits on a committee charged with making revisions to the Afghan legal code. What kind of revisions? Well, for example: "Men and women...

The first tip-off that Greg Mortenson's memoir "Three Cups of Tea" has some credibility issues comes in the book's introduction. Co-author David Oliver Relin writes that as Mortenson is flying over Pakistan, the helicopter pilot marvels to Mortenson, "I've been flying in northern Pakistan for 40 years. How is it you know the terrain better than me?" The pilot also confides, "Flying with President Musharraf, I've become acquainted with many world leaders, many outstanding gentlemen and ladies. But I think Greg Mortenson is the most remarkable person I've ever met." People don't talk like that. Books don't lead with that...

Greg Mortenson's best-selling memoir, Three Cups of Tea, is being 'reviewed' by his publisher following claims part of it was fabricated. The book, which follows Mortenson's mission to build schools across Central Asia, is filled with inaccuracies, US news programme 60 Minutes said. The report disputed his claims that he stumbled upon a mountain village during a failed attempt to climb K2. Mortenson has denied the allegations, saying he stands by the book. The book's publisher, Viking, has said it will investigate the claims made by the programme. "Greg Mortenson's work as a humanitarian in Afghanistan and Pakistan has provided...

As he ate a late lunch in the dining room of the Brown Palace Hotel, Greg Mortenson radiated all the qualities newspaper articles have attributed to him: unassuming, gentle, spiritual. One would never guess Mortenson is an anti-terrorism warrior in the Islamic strongholds of Afghanistan and Pakistan, and that his main weapon is schools. "Americans are now learning that we can't fight the war on terrorism with bombs, but with books," said Mortenson, 48, founder of a movement that has built 55 schools in those two countries in the past 13 years. "The Mullah (Islamic extremist movement) is not afraid...

Haji Ali's Lesson While building schools in Pakistan, Greg Mortenson learned a lesson from an illiterate man--the wisest man he had ever known. By Greg Mortenson and David Oliver Relin Excerpted with permission from "Three Cups of Tea," published by Viking Penguin, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. --------------------------------------------- Predictably, the jeeps carrying the wood up to Korphe were halted by another landslide that cut the track, eighteen miles shy of their destination. “The next morning, while Parvi and I were discussing what to do, we saw this great big dust cloud coming down the valley,” Mortenson says. “Haji...

WASHINGTON: An American mountaineer who fell ill while attempting to climb K2 in 1993 and spent seven weeks recovering in the Northern Areas village of Korphe promised to return and build the area’s fist school when he left - and he did. Ultimately, this led to the formation of the Central Asia Institute which has already built 55 schools across the remoter areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan. Mortenson narrates this extraordinary story in a book just published here that he calls ‘Three Cups of Tea: One Man’s Mission to Fight Terrorism and Build Nations - One School at a Time.’...