GREG MORTENSON TO SPEAK AT WEST POINT – Mar. 3, 2009

WEST POINT, N.Y. –Greg Mortenson will speak during an evening lecture to cadets who take the Military Science Counterinsurgency Operations course, Department of Military Instruction, in Thayer Hall's Robinson Auditorium on Tuesday, March 10 at 6:30 p.m. The public is invited to attend.

"Mortenson's involvement in central Asia is critical to a holistic approach to assisting other countries," said Maj. James Spies, Counterinsurgency Operations course director. "This lecture is part of the education of cadets in all the facets in counterinsurgency. The military has re-learned the lessons of counterinsurgency that point out the need to build up the whole of a society to assist them in solving the core problems that created an insurgency."

Greg Mortenson is the co-founder of the nonprofit organizations Central Asia Institute and Pennies For Peace and is the co-author of New York Times bestseller Three Cups of Tea. 

Attendees should enter through Thayer or Stony Lonesome gates. Valid identification will be required upon entering academy grounds and all vehicles are subject to search. Guests may park in Clinton Lot or other available spaces in the central post area.

About West Point
West Point, The U.S. Military Academy, is a four-year co-educational federal undergraduate liberal arts college located 50 miles north of New York City. The world's preeminent leader development institution, it was founded in 1802 as America's first college of engineering. Its mission remains constant-to educate, train, and inspire the Corps of Cadets so that each graduate is a commissioned leader of character committed to the values of Duty, Honor, Country and prepared for a career of professional excellence and service to the Nation as an officer in the United States Army. For more information, go to www.westpoint.edu