Pinocchio's plight

One of the myriad problems with hyping, manipulating, distorting and fabricating intelligence in order to bolster your case for war is that in the future, your credibility will be badly damaged - possibly beyond repair. Practically speaking, it is a near-sighted and counterproductive exercise. A strategic blunder of sizable dimensions. Consider, for example, this not altogether insignificant contention by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld:

'Weapons clearly, unambiguously from Iran have been found in Iraq,' he told a Pentagon briefing. "It's a big border. It's notably unhelpful for the Iranians to allow weapons of those types to cross the border." He did not provide further specifics.
Pentagon Briefing, August 9, 2005

" ... More on tattered credibility here."
Total Information Awareness