And if one assumes the Iraqi scientists were generating information designed to make Saddam think they were building bombs, in what way can Western intelligence forces be blamed for coming to a similar conclusion?

The one type of intelligence the Bush Administration never claimed it had was a mole inside Saddam's inner circle.

The assertion before the war that Iraq had a nuclear program within months of delivering a weapon was supposedly based on technical intelligence, external information like the discredited Nigerian yellowcake story, interpreting the aluminum tubes the UN inspectors found as suitable only for a centrifuge, and secret information that the Bush Administration claimed it had but couldn't reveal.

And prewar defectors, of course. Ask yourself this: Would an Iraqi nuclear scientist who claimed that there was no program be welcomed with open arms? Or would he be dismissed as a plant trying to cover up the existence of a program? Someone claiming to be working for a nonexistent program would be seen as something of a contradiction in terms.

The testimony of defectors was inevitably selected to support the existence of the program. Those who said otherwise wouldn't get relocated and showered in money.