I started a thread in the Research Forum

It's to do research on possible manipulations of Intelligence leading up to the Iraq War.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=358&topic_id=1048&mesg_id=1048

... etc. i.e. things said by Bush et al that were NOT reflective of the status of intelligence at the time?

I ask because "manipulating intelligence" can be narrowly defined as trying to manipulate and pressure the intelligence agencies as far as the product they produced. That is what Republicans in the Senate are trying to do with the committee's Phase II investigation, but that really doesn't get at the question.

The WH could have (and did) taken whatever intel they got and mischaracterized it, ignored large chunks of it, and basically, lied about it.

They also set up their own shops (OSP and WHIG) to produce their own intel, and those groups, I'm quite sure, were not "pressured" to produce anything. They knew damn well what they wanted to produce and they did so.