There were big problems with the evidence of nukes though. The intelligence reports had serious holes and the White House chose to pick and choose bits and pieces that reaffirmed their case for war and ignored contradictory evidence. The CIA were also receiving direct calls from the Bush administration to do whatever they could to back up the case for invasion. A major source was an informant dubbed “Curveball” an engineer who defected from Iraq and after the invasion was proven to be mostly full of shit.

So… it is not totally false to say that the Bush administration “lied” or at least fathered the invasion of their own intentions. The intelligence community had no basis for war on their own accord.