Seems to me...
...CNN is using the same reasoning for not reporting these incidents as Mr. Bush used for not providing his evidence of Iraqi WMD's...the threat to each of their sources.
As for CNN "cooperating" with Saddam to convince the world he was not a cruel despot, I think this is a rhetorical reach. Since the gassing of the Kurds in the late 1980's and the invasion of Kuwait, no one anywhere else in the world would think any differently. Even those who vehemently opposed the war don't dismiss this fact. Even the Arab nations who opposed the war openly admit this.