WMD conjecture after the 2003 invasion of Iraq
The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) and the United States-led Iraq Survey Group (ISG) failed to find any of the alleged stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq that were used as a rationale for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion. The United States effectively ended the search effort for unconventional weaponry in 2005, and the Iraq Intelligence Commission concluded that the judgements of the U.S. intelligence community regarding the continued existence of weapons of mass destruction and an associated military program were mistaken. The official findings of the CIA in 2004 were that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein "did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them." During and immediately following these searches, many theories were proposed to explain the sudden disappearance of Iraqi WMD—assuming that any had, in fact, existed. These theories included conspiracy theories, accusations against other governments and claims of successful deception efforts by Saddam Hussein.
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