seeking the materials from Niger came up... They likely faked it to bring Powell on board because he was AGAINST war in Iraq until them... and they lied to him so as to use his credibility to sell it to America and the UN...

Too many smoking guns to believe they truly BELIEVED the intel was true... They merely USED IT to justify doing what they WANTED to do all along... A few of Bush's inner circle spoke out about his discussion of taking Saddam out almost from DAY ONE of his presidency and that after 9/11, they stepped it up BIG TIME when Saddam was seen celebrating, figuring that he would be an easy target... they failed to listen to their generals though... and listened to that moron Rumsfeld who told them it would be a cake walk... Too bad our soldiers and Iraqi civilians paid the price instead of the liars who caused the whole thing...