The U.S. military proudly touted a 7 percent drop in Taliban violence in 2012 as a measure of progress in America’s longest war. Only one problem: The drop never happened.

Its explanation: a data-entry error.

The Associated Press’ Robert Burns discovered the mistake, which undercut a January claim by the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the NATO military command in Afghanistan. In reality, Burns reports, there was no substantive change in the level of “enemy-initiated attacks” in Afghanistan during 2012.

‘Data-Entry Error’ Led Military to Falsely Claim Taliban Attacks Are Down | Danger Room | Wired.com

We used to call that “getting caught lying.”