Except there was a helluva lot of people - we're talking the public here, not the war profiteering D & R machine - who knew those aluminum irrigation pipes were - aluminum irrigation pipes. He had the pictures in front of him, showed them on the big screen at his UN presentation.
Now I'd rather not direspect the dead, but either he lied or was a completely inept idiot with questionable visual acuity, and I have too much respect for his capabilities to not say he was a blatant liar.
Hey, he was convincing enough for to Poland to send 90 soldiers and Italy 15 to the grand coalition, so he couldn't have been that stupid. Just ask Schwarzkopf.