My take, for what it is worth, has always been...
The US has had inside intel on this connection for a long time, but due the the nature of it's source could not talk about it privately. People would have died.
This info has been shared with memebers of both parties at briefings. Compare and contrast the reactions. Pubbies openly concerned, Dems saying "Nothing new". IMHO, the Dems were banking on much of this never being made public. The connection now is out.
What comes next is "What did the Dems know and when did they know it?".
My take on this is that the government knew full well that if they released any of the information "found" by the reporters, that it would look suspect. France would yell that the Americans were angry and wanted revenge.
The antiwar people would say that Bush lied and made it up.
The Arabs would say that these were planted because we hadn't found any weapons of mass destruction and wanted to occupy Iraq.
So, what would be the best way to allow the message to get out? Allow the media to "find" the documents, exactly where they are located.
I can just here Rummy and Bush saying "let the chips fall where they may. Who ever was helping Sadaam needs to be exposed. No matter who it was.
I fully expect to find thank you notes from Hilary and Bill in there.