This photo shows a spoof¹ edition of The New York Times announcing "Iraq War Ends," part of a hoax² executed by pranksters.

The United States has ended the war in Iraq and indicted³ President George W. Bush on treason charges, The New York Times reported Tuesday. OK, well not really.

An elaborate spoof hit the streets of New York on Tuesday: a convincing fake of The New York Times announcing not just the withdrawal⁴ of troops from Iraq but a raft of other US liberal fantasies.

Bush is indicted, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice apologizes that the fuss about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction was invented, and Americans are finally getting national health insurance.

And that's just on the front page.

The only problem? The free, 14-page "special edition" newspaper is phoney.

Website www.gawker.com has identified the pranksters behind the stunt⁵ as The Yes men, a liberal group famous for practical jokes.

The newspaper was a vision of what Americans would love to see under Barack Obama after he takes power in January.

Dated July 4, 2009, its front-page motto reads: "All the news we hope to print" -- a play on the Times' famous "All the news that's fit to print."

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 commentators⁶ had a wittier⁷ retort:

"Sorry, folks, the paper isn't free. And the Iraq war isn't over, at least not yet."

It's not the first time the venerable newspaper has been parodied⁸. One was published during the 1978 newspaper strike.

Another came out on April Fool's Day 1999, printed by British business tycoon⁹ Sir Richard Branson and titled "I Can't Believe It's Not The New York Times."

据《纽约时报》本周二报道，美国日前结束伊拉克战争，并以叛国罪起诉总统乔治•W•布什。可惜，这不是真的。

一个精心策划的恶作剧于本周二引爆纽约街头：当日的一份“高仿真版”《纽约时报》不仅宣布了美国从伊拉克撤军的消息，还刊载了其它很多大快人心的报道。

其中包括布什总统被指控；国务卿赖斯承认布什政府在发动伊拉克战争前就知道伊拉克没有大规模杀伤性武器；美国的全民保险制度终于建立等等。

这还只是头版的内容……

只可惜，这份免费的、14版的《纽约时报》“特刊”是假的。

Gawker.com网站通过调查发现，这份假《纽约时报》的幕后操手是一个名叫“应声虫（The Yes men）”的以恶搞而著称的自由组织。

这份报纸反映了美国人希望在奥巴马明年1月接任总统后能看到的一些新变化。

这份日期为2009年7月4日的《纽约时报》在其头版打出了宣传口号，“我们刊登所有我们希望看到的新闻”，而正版《纽约时报》的宣传语则是“我们刊登所有有价值的新闻”。

《纽约时报》的一位女发言人说：“这显然是个恶作剧，目前我们正在对该事件进行调查。”

《纽约时报》的一位网络评论员的反驳则更加诙谐幽默：“不好意思，各位，报纸并不免费，伊战也未结束，至少现在还没有。”

《纽约时报》遭恶搞已不是第一次，其中一次是在1978年报业罢工之时。

另一次是在1999年的愚人节，当时英国商界大亨理查德•布兰森印刷了一批假报，当时报纸的头条是“我不相信这不是《纽约时报》。”