Michael Shipster

Michael David Shipster CMG OBE (born 17 March 1951) is a British former diplomat.

Michael Shipster
Shipster in 2011
Born	(1951-03-17) 17 March 1951 (age 73)
Nationality	British
Alma mater	St Edmund Hall, Oxford University of East Anglia
Occupation	Diplomat
Awards	CMG OBE
Espionage activity
Allegiance	United Kingdom

He was educated at Ratcliffe College, St Edmund Hall, Oxford (MA 1972) and the University of East Anglia (MA, Development Studies, 1977).^[1] He was an Overseas Development Institute Nuffield Fellow in Botswana between 1972 and 1974, and joined Her Majesty's Diplomatic Service in 1977, serving in Moscow, New Delhi, Lusaka, Johannesburg and Washington. He was awarded an OBE in 1990 and a CMG in 2003.

His wife Jackie was an actor, pianist and music teacher.^[2]

Iraq intelligence

In The Way of the World, journalist and author Ron Suskind claims that Shipster was the head of MI6 in the Middle East prior to the Iraq War, and that he had held secret meetings in Jordan with Tahir Jalil Habbush, head of Iraqi Intelligence. Suskind claims that Habbush assured Shipster that Iraq did not possess active nuclear, chemical, biological or other weapons of mass destruction, and that the then head of MI6 Sir Richard Dearlove flew to Washington to brief the head of the CIA George Tenet about this, and that Tenet immediately briefed George Bush.^[3]

References

1. ‘SHIPSTER, Michael David’, Who's Who 2014, A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 2014
2. "Jackie Shipster obituary". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 December 2021.
3. Stephen, Andrew (5 October 2008). "Tell us the truth". The Observer. Retrieved 22 June 2014.