Just as a sociology-of-communications type aside, this is their favorite tactic for dealing with false reports.
"Does Saddam Hussein have a secret army of giant invisible killer robots?"
"I haven't seen that report. However, Saddam Hussein is an utterly ruthless character. Surely he would like very much to have an army of giant invisible killer robots to oppress his own people and threaten the United States. We'll be studying what he has and what he doesn't have very carefully."
lp