As for Iraq, I think he was saying it could have been bad intelligence ON PURPOSE. In other words, it wasn’t Bush and Powell lying. They believed what they were being told. But they were being lied to. You are correct (see my previous posting -- the faulty intelligence came from the Italians). But no one wants to admit who lied, and for what purpose.
Perhaps the source was someone in the Iraqi government, who wanted out, wanted money, or just wanted to mislead.
The simplest explanation is that the Iranian government and their Shi'ite sympathizers in Iraq have had moles in the highest reaches of the U.S. government for years.
A little research on the background of Ahmed Chalabi might be worthwhile.