\title{Urgent Newsflash: Origins of \LaTeX} \author{anonymous} \begin{Article} \frenchspacing U.S. Government Department of Defense papers released yesterday reveal the true source of the \LaTeX\ document preparation tool. Under the twenty-five year rule, hitherto secret Military Intelligence papers have been released into the public domain, detailing the Government involvement in the development of a prototype software tool. Major General Charles Schultz publicly apologised at a press meeting held to diffuse what was described as a `tense situation' as the unsavoury origins of the `alleged software' were finally unearthed. Developed at the height of the Cold War, the prototype system was aimed at crippling the so-called `information net' within the Soviet high command. Maj. Gen. Schultz said, `We realised what would happen if an enemy organisation actually tried to create documents with this thing. Of course, it seems cold-blooded now, but you have to remember that this was at a time of war.' He added, `We never expected it to get out into general circulation'. Apparently, the software was released into a controlled environment under the cover of a beta-test at several academic sites in Europe and America. `We put in place all safety measures. However, we didn't fully appreciate the tenacity of academic staff in using and then illegally copying it into the wider environment. With hindsight, we should have taken a warning from the fact that they still thought Fortran was a good idea.' DoD boffins are rumoured to have panicked and released a beta-version of Emacs, the strangely popular editor-cum-operating-system in order to stem the spread of \LaTeX. However, Maj. Gen. Schultz declined to comment. \end{Article}