From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — There’s an old saying that a lie can travel halfway around the world before the truth puts its boots on. Let it be known that mistakes can travel just as fast — and just as far.

Take the case of Rep. Ellen Tauscher, D-California, who at a hearing on Capitol Hill last week spoke about a 1962 nuclear test in the Nevada desert. The test was code named “Project Sedan.”

Tauscher’s remarks were little noticed, until they were transcribed — incorrectly — in an unofficial transcript of the hearing. One letter was changed. The “Sedan” nuclear test became the “Sudan” nuclear test.

And the government of Sudan took notice.

Less than a day after Tauscher uttered her words, and after they were incorrectly transcribed, Sudanese officials evidently were alerted to the transcript.

The Sudanese Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. charge d’affaires in Khartoum and demanded an explanation about the supposedly secret nuclear tests in the east African country.

The Arab language satellite channel Al-Jazeera picked up the story. It put the Sudanese foreign minister on the air. “The Sudanese government takes this issue seriously and with extreme importance,” he told the world.

The Chinese news service picked up the story. In a story appearing only one day after Tauscher spoke, the news service reported that the Sudanese government held the U.S. responsible for “cancer spread in Sudan” caused by “U.S. nuclear experiments in the African country in 1962-1970.”

…etc; what nailed me to my seat was the paragraph:

He noted that the transcript referred to it as the Sudan nuclear test site, but quickly recognized that the blast described was identical to the “Project Sedan” test — which was conducted to determine if nuclear devices could be used for peaceful purposes such as cratering or earth moving.

Oh really? Certainly. And I suppose the Glomar Explorer really was created to harvest manganese nodules?