"...no person by the name of Ali Shamarri worked in the statistics department, nor anywhere else in the ministry."
These "reporters" are so used to getting their facts from press conferences, that they just assumed this guy was an official of some sort and printed what he said before checking things out. Granted, it must be difficult to know who is in charge over there, but my guess is that they "liked" the numbers....and were "conned" by the enemy... and willingly so!
You know I heard John Gibson on FOX radio (the day the Wapo headlined with that number) repeating the 1300 number and declaring, "How can this be anything but civil war?" Then he had Col David Hunt call in, and he reiterated, "Yep, 1300. It's civil war." I was listening to the re-broadcast of the show later that night, so I knew that number was skewed, but was disgusted that they would be so quick to jump on a story coming from the Wapo. I really wanted to e-mail Gibson and ask him "How do you like the feeling of egg all over your face?"
This is not the first time Col. David Hunt has used some wild numbers, so anytime I hear his counts, I am skeptical.