I have always been leery of convenient explanations of complex problems. I'm guessing that you are referring to the "WMD," cover story for our invasion of Iraq. It will all be declassified someday. But consider the following:
If you wanted to focus the attention of terrorists to one spot, put American troops there. It was "War of Attrition II: The Middle East Story." The first version of that story had successfully sucked hard currency away from the CCCP, from which they never recovered. Iraq was chosen as the site to play this out, because the hatred between the Bushes and Sadaam Hussein was legendary. Attracting terrorists to his country was the revenge of the Two Georges. I have no inside information to back this up, nor do I suggest it is based on facts. But Middle East Terrorists' ability to carry out attacks on the US have been greatly degraded and, it could be true.
Yes. The CIA lies to the world about clandestine operations big and small. They are required to do so by their charter. Don't forget H.W. was their Director, once. They lie because, they can. But "Most of the people in the rest of the government tell mostly the truth most of the time."--Abraham Lincoln said that