When the Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes asked why the Pentagon was hesitant to release thousands of documents captured in postwar Iraq, a spokesman told him:

“There is always the concern that people would be chasing a lot of information good or bad, and when the Times or the Post splashes a headline about some sensational-sounding document that would seem to ‘prove’ that sanctions were working, or that Saddam was just a misunderstood patriot, or some other nonsense, we’d spend a lot of time chasing around after it.”

Last week the Pentagon finally released the documents, which so far have provided ample evidence of Saddam Hussein’s financial support for terrorism and links to al-Qaeda.

Yet just as that Pentagon spokesman predicted, the media have totally ignored the terror ties and gone straight for the “Saddam was just a misunderstood patriot” angle. Media Blog reader John B. sends us a case in point:

Documents Show Saddam’s WMD Frustrations
BAGHDAD, Iraq – Exasperated, besieged by global pressure, Saddam Hussein and top aides searched for ways in the 1990s to prove to the world they’d given up banned weapons.
“We don’t have anything hidden!” the frustrated Iraqi president interjected at one meeting, transcripts show.
At another, in 1996, Saddam wondered whether U.N. inspectors would “roam Iraq for 50 years” in a pointless hunt for weapons of mass destruction. “When is this going to end?” he asked.
It ended in 2004, when U.S. experts, after an exhaustive investigation, confirmed what the men in those meetings were saying: that Iraq had eliminated its weapons of mass destruction long ago, a finding that discredited the Bush administration’s stated rationale for invading Iraq in 2003