Much of what military briefers presented, particularly in the early days of the war, consisted of preliminary estimates by field troops that were not subjected to closer scrutiny until after the war.

For example, more than a day after the boy's family had taken the body home, military briefers continued to say he had not been identified or claimed.

In recent days, American military briefers said the allies had destroyed or damaged virtually all of Iraq's destroyers and patrol boats.

United States military briefers have estimated that during the war Iraq lost about 40 percent of its prewar total of about 600 military aircraft, which would leave it with roughly 360 aircraft now.

American special forces operations were barely mentioned during the six-week Persian Gulf war, as military briefers chronicled the destruction of the Iraqi military by more conventional air, sea and land power.

At the Pentagon, military briefers described - in the greatest detail to date - specific targets attacked.

Within that Puzzle Palace, an accidental acronym was formed when the phrase Global War on Terrorism became popular among military briefers and point-sheet writers.

Such communications towers dot the landscape here and are evidently part of the "command and control centers" that allied military briefers regularly listed as among their top-priority targets during the air war against Iraq.

This week, American and British military briefers said Iraq was using decoys to mislead allied pilots on their bombing raids.

American military briefers have repeatedly complained that Iraq has been wheeling out fake launchers while the real launchers have proved elusive to allied pilots.