NEW Yorkers were left a little confused overnight as more than a million copies of a fake newspaper were handed out by a team of pranksters rallied through the web.
"Iraq War Ends" read the headline of a fake "special edition" of The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009, which was handed out to commuters as they rushed for work.
"Court Indicts Bush On High Treason Charge" and "Public Universities To Be Free" read some of the other spoof headlines, next to an admission by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US Government had known Iraq did not have access to weapons of mass destruction.
As many as 1.2 million copies of the 14-page newspaper were handed out, along with an online spoof of the Times' website at www.nytimes-se.com.
Gawker identified the pranksters behind the stunt as The Yes Men, a liberal group famous for practical jokes.
According to the blog, The Yes Men organised the lightning operation by rallying a group of volunteers through secret emails and text messages.
An email reprinted on Gawker gave detailed instructions on where to collect copies of the fake newspaper and encouraged volunteers to spread the word by email.
"TONIGHT – and especially, TOMORROW MORNING (WEDNESDAY) – a year of work involving dozens of collaborators comes to a head," the email read.
Volunteers were reminded that they "did not know" who was behind the prank, and that the organisers wanted to remain secret.
"We want to maintain maximum mystery around this, for as long as possible – at least for a couple of days," the message said.
However Gawker reported that the email was sent from an account linked to The Yes Men and that the volunteers were collected from a website run by the group.
At first glance, the parody, which uses the Times' Gothic-style font on the nameplate, could easily be mistaken for the real thing.
A Times spokeswoman said: "This is obviously a fake issue... We are in the process of finding out more about it.''
One of the newspaper's own online commentators had a wittier retort:
"Sorry, folks, the paper isn't free. And the Iraq war isn't over, at least not yet."