Ex-Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer torn to shreds for 'bullsh*t' justification of Iraq War on 16th anniversary of US invasion

Former George W. Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer attempted to justify the invasion of Iraq, but a variety of experts and others who remember the era fact-checked his efforts.

The former White House official insisted the anti-war slogan "Bush lied, people died" was itself a lie, claiming the Bush administration had been the victim of a "major intelligence failure."

"The fact is that President Bush (and I as press secretary) faithfully and accurately reported to the public what the intelligence community concluded," Fleischer tweeted. "The CIA, along with the intelligence services of Egypt, France, Israel and others concluded that Saddam had WMD. We all turned out to be wrong. That is very different from lying."

Fleischer's self-serving justifications were called out as flatly false by CIA analysts, historians, journalists and numerous others, who provided examples of perfidy by former Vice President Dick Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and other Bush administration officials in the push for war.