THE DEFENSE DEPARTMENT late Saturday, November 15, issued a statement that began: “News reports that the Defense Department recently confirmed new information with respect to contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq in a letter to the Senate Intelligence Committee are inaccurate.” The statement didn’t specify the “inaccurate” news reports, but most observers have inferred that the main report in question was an article in the most recent issue of THE WEEKLY STANDARD–Case Closed: The U.S. government’s secret memo detailing cooperation between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. “Case Closed” described an October 27 memorandum to the Senate Intelligence Committee from Undersecretary of Defense Douglas J. Feith, which included 50 numbered items of intelligence from a variety of sources and agencies on links between Saddam Hussein’s Iraq and Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

The Pentagon’s statement continues: