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. ==References==