the Bush administration clearly stated it was an imminent threat
This subject came up on Daniel Drezner's blog a few months ago, whether they said it was an iminent threat or not. There was a debate on it with lots of comments on both sides. Drezner was an adviser to Cheney in 2000 and is hardly a liberal.
His conclusion was the administration represented that Saddam was an imminent threat quite clearly. Since no intelligence reports stated that, they misrepresented the facts.