The making of a meme

CNN for February 12 carried an article about developments with the UN team in Iraq looking into the possibility of elections. Fairly straightforward update with suggestions that some sort of consensus is gradually emerging.

Toward the bottom of the piece there is this:

Meanwhile, coalition officials announced Thursday they had doubled the reward to $10 million for information leading to the capture of Musab al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian with links to al Qaeda who is accused of planning and executing numerous attacks.

Saying Zarqawi is the most-wanted man in Iraq, officials distributed a document they say he wrote to al Qaeda leadership in Afghanistan asking for more help and support.

Hold it. More help? That implies that Zarqawi's group is already getting help from al-Qaeda. The letter doesn't say that, at least according to yesterday's reports. It's a request for help, not for more help.

Now, anyone could say "Well, any help is more than no help, so it's not inaccurate to say he's asking for more help." In theory, not inaccurate. In reality, insanely misleading.

It is, in fact, a perfect illustration of how a statement can be technically true and still be classified as a lie.