MOHAMMAD AGHA, Afghanistan     Greg Mortenson is hurtling down the dusty back    roads of eastern Afghanistan, hoping the Taliban wont attack    his Toyota 4Runner. There are no police checkpoints, no    American troops and no sign of any foreign development projects     including his own.  
    A few years ago, when the author of Three Cups of Tea was one of the    worlds most beloved activists, there would have been a host of    American officials waiting for him. But now, with his    reputation in a shambles, he has slipped back into Afghanistan    quietly.  
    When he arrives at an unmarked blue gate in a mud wall, his    driver stops. Inside, Mortenson says, lies the other side of    the story  hundreds of Afghan girls getting an education,    thanks to him.  
    Except no one is answering the door. The place looks abandoned.  
    Maybe everyone is at a wedding, he says with a forced laugh.    He squirms in his seat.  
    Mortenson won fame as a humanitarian who built hundreds of    schools in Afghanistan. Four-star U.S. generals sought his    advice on Afghan tribal dynamics. President Obama     donated $100,000      of his Nobel Prize winnings to Mortensons charity. Former    president Bill Clinton     praised him. Four million people bought his book.  
    Many of his former advocates now see him as a fraud.  
    A     2012 investigation into his charity, the Central Asia    Institute, found that he spent millions in donations on his    expenses, including travel and clothing. His book turned out to    contain large-scale fabrications. Some of the schools he    boasted of had no students. Some appeared not to have been    built at all.  
    Now, Mortenson is trying to start over, to emerge from years of    pain and disgrace. His donations have crashed. His     co-author committed suicide by kneeling in front of a    train. His daughter tried to take her life. He almost died of    heart failure.  
    Mortenson, 56, is wearing Afghan clothing  a flowing tunic and    flat wool cap. He sits in the truck on this sunny morning,    staring at the blue gate, which remains closed. He is tapping    his foot. The minutes pass slowly.  
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Mortenson returns to Afghanistan, trying to move past his ...