From WNYKR's in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. This week, the Bipartisan Commission reviewing the attacks of 9-11

concluded its exhaustive investigations. Over the last few months, it has combed through thousands

of documents and interviewed many civilians, military personnel, and administration officials.

On Wednesday, it weighed in on one of the most hotly contested issues surrounding the war in Iraq,

namely, the alleged relationship between Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.

This is what they said.

Two senior bin Laden associates have adamantly denied any ties existed between

al-Qaeda and Iraq. And so far we have no credible evidence that Iraq and al-Qaeda cooperated

on attacks against the United States. So that's it then. Finally an end to months of dispute over this

issue. Well, not quite. The next day in a press conference,

the president gave this response when asked why he kept insisting there was a link between Iraq and

Al-Qaeda. The reason I keep insisting that there was a relationship between Iraq and Saddam and

al-Qaeda, because there was a relationship between Iraq and Al-Qaeda.

Apparently, you can drive a stake into the heart of this story, but you just can't kill it.

Again and again, the misperception that there were ties between Iraq and al-Qaeda has been struck down,

and again and again it keeps coming back. Standard journalistic practice

dictates that when a statement comes from the administration, it will be in the lead of the

story and at the top of every broadcast, as this latest statement was. And with that, a dead

assertion is once again resurrected. Christy Harvey compiles the Progress Report for the Center for American Progress, a liberal

Washington-based think tank.

She's been following the course of this misperception.

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