dimanche 24 août 2008

LE S.I.S. : UNE GRANDE FAMILLE

Quand il est question de services secrets et de renseignement, le grand public a tendance a y associer en priorité James BOND le . Ce personnage de fiction crée en 1953 par Ian FLEMING lui-même ancien officier de renseignement britannique est en effet l’archétype de « l’agent secret ». Pourtant tout les professionnels du métier s’accordent à le considérer comme le plus mauvais officier de renseignement possible. Tout le monde connaît son nom, ses faiblesses (les femmes l’alcool le jeu..) et sa propension a régler tout les problèmes à coup de Walther PPK.

Le 28 mai 2008, pour le 100ème anniversaire de la naissance de FLEMING, paraissait à Londres le 36ème épisode des aventures de 007 : « DEVIL MAY CARE » écrite par Sebastian FAULKS « à la manière de Ian FLEMING » précise la couverture.


Même si on ne pas lu, On ne saurait rester indifférent &a cette couverture. La jeune personne en ombre chinoise y démontrait un vrai talent pour … attirer la lumière.

Mais quelle ne fut pas ma surprise en découvrant que cette généreuse personne se nommait Tuuli SHIPSTER et surtout qu’elle était la fille d’un « diplomate anglais » .

Ce « diplomate », heureux père d'une magnifique jeune fille, est en fait Michael David SHIPSTER récent retraité du SIS (Secret Intelligence Service) ou MI6 les services de renseignements extérieurs britanniques.

Une source fiable m’affirme que c’est lui sur cette photo

Né en le 17 mars 1951 et marié à Jacquelynne MANN en 1974, il rejoint le SIS en 1977.

Après 2 ans de formation au métier d’ officier traitant et une couverture de 2eme secrétaire du FCO (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) il passe un an dans un centre de formation de l’armée aux langues étrangères à Beaconsfield. Il y étudie le russe pour son premier poste à l’étranger : Moscou.

Il y est 1er secrétaire à la section économique de l’ambassade de 1981 a 83. Il y participe probablement au traitement de la source GORDIEVSKY lors de ses rares séjours sur place. Et c’est aussi à cette époque que ses deux filles naissent (Tuuli en Finlande en 1982).

De 1983 à 1986 il est affecté à Londres probablement en tant que chef d’une section de production en relation avec les pays de l’est

De 1986 à 1989 il rejoint New Delhi ou ses objectifs sont ses collègues du KGB sur place.

De 1989 à 1990 il est chef de poste du SIS à Lusaka toujours en tant que 1er secrétaire . Il y excelle tant qu’a la fin de son séjour il est officier l'OBE (Order of the British Empire)

Puis en 1991 il rejoint Johannesburg en tant que consul chargé des affaires politiques. Il y est aussi probablement chef de la station sur place.

En 1994, en tant que conseiller FCO, il entame une période de 10 ans au QG de Century House puis Vauxhall Cross ou il est notamment Contrôleur du Moyen Orient (Chef de la Division Production du Maroc à l’Inde) puis adjoint opérationnel de Sir Richard DEARLOVE.

Un ouvrage récent de Ron SUSKIND affirme que dans le cadre de ses fonctions il aurait rencontré le chef des services irakiens -Taher Jalil HABBUSH- qu’il l’aurait tamponné (recruté) et que celui lui aurait fourni les preuves de l’absence d’armes de destruction massive dans son pays.

Ces preuves comme d’autres (déjà cités ici) auraient été impitoyablement rejetées par le gouvernement US. Notons que c'est Nigel INKSTER directeur adjoint du SIS à l'époque qui semble être une des sources de cet ouvrage, malgré ses dénégations a postériori.

En 2003 SHIPSTER est décoré du CMG pour son action dans le dossier irakien, et en 2004 il est nommé en tant que conseiller, en replacement de Ian Forbes MCCREDDIE, Chef du poste principal du SIS, à Washington.

Jusqu'à son départ de Washington et du SIS en 2006, il y assure la fameuse liaison avec les services US.

Décidément soit l’Angleterre est petite, soit le SIS est une grande famille.

2 commentaires:

Cyril a dit…

Obituary Jimmy James.
GORDON CASELY.
627 mots
9 février 2002
The Scotsman
13
Anglais
(c) 2002

Edward Foster (Jimmy) James, CMG OBE, former MI6 officer and Deputy Director General of the CBI.

Born: 18 January, 1917 at Chiswick, London Died: 23 January, aged 85.

EDWARD "Jimmy" James had to deal with the fall-out of the treachery of George Blake, the MI6 officer who was a double agent for the KGB. This presented the Secret Intelligence Service with its most catastrophic post-war spy problem.

James, always known as Jimmy, was a slick social operator. Bald with a high forehead and trademark thick spectacles decorating his face in later years, he had the ability to make opponents feel indefensibly wrong and hopelessly compromised. He was not a man to be easily crossed.

One colleague recalls: "He was absolutely charming, but behind that smile lay a loaded revolver. While he certainly inspired respect and admiration, he was a ruthless operator."

James was serving in Berlin at the time of Blake's arrest in 1961, and he faced the urgent task of salvaging what he could from Blake's actions, including the lives of agents he had betrayed.

Blake had also served in Berlin, posted there in 1955 with the task of recruiting KGB officers. After defecting to the KGB, he betrayed a reputed 400 agents to his Soviet controller.

James, known for lateral thinking and energetic intellect, brought his efforts to bear and thanks to his prompt action, many of the MI6 agents whose names Blake had given to the KGB were saved.

Educated at Chiswick County School, West London, Edward Foster James worked on the commercial side of trade and technical publications for three years until the start of the Second World War. He later recalled how valuable this early experience of administration proved in later years with the SIS.

Commissioned into the Royal Artillery, he served until 1946 in India, Burma, Malaya and Indo-nesia, ultimately as lieutenant colonel. His personal bravery earned him two mentions in dispatches, while his ability was recognised by his appointment as OBE (military) in 1946.

In 1947, he joined MI6, soon becoming head of station in Rangoon. In later years, while he never referred to his secret intelligence work, his use of the euphemism "diplomatic service" gave enough of a hint to those who might have guessed.

In 1951, he moved to Hong Kong, charged with the task of dismantling the MI6 organisation for fear that it had been built on suspect intelligence.

Thereafter, he served under the aegis of the Foreign Office in London and Rome before returning to London again in 1958. This latter experience he used to good effect in consoli-dating his wider contacts.

Some months after his posting to Berlin in 1960, Blake was suspected as a traitor, and it was during James's service in Berlin that the vital piece of evidence confirming Blake's treachery was brought to light.

Blake, sentenced to 42 years in prison for espionage, was later spectacularly sprung from Wandsworth Jail.

In 1961, James again worked under the umbrella of the Foreign Office (later the Foreign and Commonwealth Office), serving with MI6 until 1974. He was appointed CMG in 1968.

His final appointment, as director of administration, brought the same chilling cold-blooded approach to improving efficiency as he had as a young agent in the field.

Headhunted by the Institute of Directors in 1975, he joined the Confederation of British Industry the following year as deputy director-general. Working under the gifted director general, Sir John Methven, he formed a formidable partnership, expanding the membership base and increasing the influence of the CBI with consummate skill.

He is survived by his second wife, Janet, the children of his first marriage, Sue, Penny and Peter, and grandchildren, Harry and Eliza.

Cyril a dit…

DESMOND PARKINSON - OBITUARY.
568 mots
7 septembre 1995
The Times
Anglais
Copyright Times Newspapers Ltd, 1995

Desmond Parkinson, CMG, intelligence officer, died in Hove on August 22 aged 74. He was born on October 21, 1920

DESMOND PARKINSON was one of the more attractive of the breed of Secret Intelligence Service officers who joined the service shortly after the ending of the Second World War. He had a successful career, in the course of which he generally succeeded in concealing the ability, hard work and dedication which he brought to his chosen profession.

He was the son of a regular army officer who was also Lord of the Manor of the village of Silchester, Hampshire. This local connection was something which the son valued and retained throughout his life.

Educated at Winchester, Desmond Frederick Parkinson entered the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in 1939. But by the end of that year he was commissioned into the Gloucester Regiment.

In 1940 he was commanding a platoon in France and was captured by the Germans near Dunkirk. He spent five years as a prisoner of war. Asked later whether this had been a terrible experience he replied that, after Winchester and the Regular Army, it all seemed natural enough.

From 1945 he returned briefly to regimental soldiering and then moved into military Intelligence. From there the step into the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) was natural and he joined the service in 1949. For the next 15 years, most of his service was overseas with the emphasis first on South-East Asia, and on Africa.

He served in Rangoon (with a spell as Consul at Maymo), Jakarta, Singapore, Delhi and in Rabat and Lagos where he succeeded to a remarkable degree in winning the trust and confidence of his Nigerian colleagues.

These posts were sometimes interspersed with staff appointments at headquarters dealing with one or other of these two areas.

From 1966 to his retirement in 1978 he held a series of appointments at headquarters, of steadily increasing importance and seniority, mainly in the fields of training and personnel.

It was altogether appropriate that his last job should have been that of Director of Personnel and Administration. In all these senior appointments he showed the same qualities of calm good sense, humanity and conscientious hard work which had distinguished his career in the field.

But these were not qualities which he advertised. The face he presented to the world was rather one of indolence and a capacity for ludicrous misfortunes. When asked how he proposed to occupy himself in retirement, he replied that he would embark on a "policy of drift". He was full of tales of financial misfortunes for which he was to blame. In a more serious vein he would sometimes reproach himself for not having worked harder at the two talents in which he had been remarkable as a schoolboy: golf and music.

There was certainly a hedonistic side to his nature and he was both wise and fortunate to adopt a profession to which he could dedicate himself. Above all, he was a man of unusual personal charm, to whom his many friends were devoted.

He was four times married. The first two marriages ended in divorce and the third in sudden and premature death. His fourth marriage, to Paddy, brought him much happiness.

He is survived by her, by two sons and a daughter of his first marriage, and by a daughter of his third.

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