FAKE NEWS: Mattis Hasn’t Decided to Send 4K More Troops to Afghanistan.

A spokeswoman for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis on Friday pushed back against news reports that he’s already approved sending 4,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

“Secretary Mattis has made no decisions on a troop increase for Afghanistan,” Dana White, an assistant to Mattis and the chief Pentagon spokesperson, said in a statement.

White noted that Mattis in testimony to Congress through this week had repeatedly said that decisions on troop increases would await the presentation to President Donald Trump of a new strategy for Afghanistan that would be ready in mid-July.

The Associated Press on Thursday reported that Mattis as early as next week may announce that he supports deploying 4,000 more troops in response to the request of Army Gen. John Nicholson, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who had requested between 3,000 and 5,000 additional forces.

In her statement, White said that Trump had delegated authority to Mattis to set troop levels in Afghanistan, but any decision would have to await consultations with other government agencies, the Afghan government, NATO allies and other coalition members.

What happened to all those layers of editors and fact-checkers?