A pile of wheels and twisted metal becomes a Taliban claim that their forces shot down two US helicopters.
Taliban reports of heavy civilian casualties are dismissed as lies by the US.
Misdirection and propaganda have quickly made truth a casualty in the US war on terrorism.
Americans and other Westerners aren't the targets of Taliban propaganda, US officials say -- most in the West have made up their mind that the strikes are justified.
The Taliban claims could, however, fracture the delicate coalition the US has formed with Muslim nations.
The Western media treat with skepticism Taliban claims of mass civilian casualties, but they make front pages in Pakistan, where urban legends blaming Israel for the Sept. 11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon are published as fact.
The Pentagon this week briefed reporters on what it says are Taliban techniques to create news that makes the US look bad.
In one case, the Taliban moved a helicopter next to a mosque near the western city of Herat.
That could have one of two outcomes, said the senior defense official giving the briefing: The helicopter would be avoided by US bomber pilots who didn't want to risk hitting the mosque, or the bombs would hit the helicopter, damage the mosque and fan anti-US sentiment.
The official, who spoke under ground rules shielding his identity, said reporters should be wary when the normally reticent Taliban open up a bomb damage site. The country has been bombed so much during decades of war that there's little guarantee that a US bomb was the cause.
Some Taliban claims have the ring of at least some truth. The United States has owned up to bombs going astray and causing some civilian casualties.
And the wheels held up by Taliban troops apparently did come from a US helicopter damaged in last weekend's Ranger raid near Kandahar.
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