So...

When the Bush crew says Congress had the same intelligence and they haven't hyped the evidence...

They're lying.

Ask them to release the September 21 PDB. According to the National Journal:

One of the more intriguing things that Bush was told during the briefing was that the few credible reports of contacts between Iraq and Al Qaeda involved attempts by Saddam Hussein to monitor the terrorist group. Saddam viewed Al Qaeda as well as other theocratic radical Islamist organizations as a potential threat to his secular regime.

That PDB has never been released, not even to the 9/11 Commission. No wonder. It seems to suggest that Saddam Hussein thought of Al Qaeda as an enemy. Do you recall hearing that bit of evidence during the run-up to war? I must have missed it. Click this link to read the entire article. Besides this new evidence, it's an outstanding summary of the incredible inconsistencies the Bush Administration used to sell the war.