"To fabricate an alibi for his nonfeasance, and to cover up his department's embarrassing cut of the counterterrorism budget last year, Attorney General John Ashcroft - working with his hand-picked aide, F.B.I. Director 'J. Edgar' Mueller III - has gutted guidelines put in place a generation ago to prevent the abuse of police power by the federal government," writes conservative pundit William Safire.

Former reporters for the Taliban news service describe how they were ordered to inflate figures of civilian casualties from the U.S. bombing of Afghanistan. Casualty estimates today still range from a low of 1,000 to a high of around 3,000. Some of the former Taliban reporters are still at work, now for the new government. Mohammed Ismail Qanay "keeps a photo of himself from his days as a reluctant co-conspirator in the Taliban's propaganda factory, when he was required to wear the tunic and pantaloons, a turban and a flowing beard.

A "PR makeover," explains communications consultant Fraser P. Seitel, is when "a caged and cornered public figure attempts a complete identity reversal." Seitel examines recent makeover attempts by FBI Director Robert Mueller, Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi, and New Jersey Senator Robert Torricelli. "Changing one's image depends on a shocking release, startling revelation or completely unanticipated declaration - to confess to past lapses and promise future change," Seitel says. But are any of these conversions genuine?