'They Have Controlled the Media by Using Money, Power and Their Lies'

I'm not sure which is more of a preposterous claim. That the U.S. military controls the media or the absurd notion that the Taliban have killed more than 5,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan in 2008. Where'd they get these numbers from, The Lancet?

It'll be amusing to see if anyone actually reports this with a straight face.

The Taliban has long exaggerated its military successes, but its recent claim that it killed more than 5,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan last year may be the militia's most startling yet.

The Taliban said last week on its Web site that it killed 5,220 U.S. and NATO troops in 2008 — an exaggerated figure nearly 20 times the official death toll.

The insurgents also said they downed 31 aircraft last year. Its fighters destroyed 2,818 NATO and Afghan vehicles and killed 7,552 Afghan soldiers and police, according to a statement from a spokesman.

The true damage inflicted on U.S. and NATO fighters over the last year has been "repeatedly hidden by the enemy and they have controlled the media by using money, power and their lies," the statement said.

NATO and its member countries announce all troop deaths, providing names, ages and hometowns and how the soldiers were killed. According to an Associated Press tally based on those announcements, 286 foreign forces died last year in Afghanistan, including 151 American and 51 British.

Though the death toll was highly exaggerated, the Taliban have had increased success recently. Violence in Afghanistan has spiked in the last two years, and Taliban militants now control wide swaths of countryside. In response, the U.S. is planning to pour up to 30,000 more troops into the country this year.

The insurgents' exaggerations are designed to boost morale inside the Taliban and to attract financing from donors sympathetic to their cause, a U.S. military official and a Taliban expert said.

"They put out this propaganda in order to raise capital to continue their operations," said Col. Jerry O'Hara, a U.S. military spokesman.

Even the most die-hard fanatic will be dubious with these assertions.