Mike Shuster
Mike Shuster is an award-winning diplomatic correspondent and roving foreign correspondent for NPR News. He is based at NPR West, in Culver City, CA. When not traveling outside the U.S., Shuster covers issues of nuclear non-proliferation and weapons of mass destruction, terrorism, and the Pacific Rim.
In recent years, Shuster has helped shape NPRs extensive coverage of the Middle East as one of the leading reporters to cover this region – traveling in the spring of 2007 to Iraq to cover the increased deployment of American forces in Baghdad. He has traveled frequently to Iran – seven times since 2004 – to report on Iran's nuclear program and political changes there. He has also reported frequently from Israel, covering the 2006 war with Hezbollah, the pullout from Gaza in 2005 and the second intifada that erupted in 2000. His 2007 week-long series "The Partisans of Ali" explored the history of Shi'ite faith and politics, providing a rare, comprehensive look at the complexities of the Islamic religion and its impact on the Western world.
Shuster has won numerous awards for his reporting. He was part of the NPR News team to be recognized with a Peabody Award for coverage of September 11th and its aftermath. He was also part of the NPR News teams to receive Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards for coverage of the Iraq War (2007 and 2004); September 11th and the war in Afghanistan (2003); and the Gulf War (1992). In 2003, Shuster was honored for his series "The Middle East: A Century of Conflict" with an Overseas Press Club Lowell Thomas Award and First in Documentary Reporting from the National Headliner Awards. He also received an honorable mention from the Overseas Press Club in 1999, and the SAJA Journalism Award in 1998.
Through his reporting for NPR, Shuster has also taken listeners to India and Pakistan, the Central Asian nations of Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Tajikistan, and the Congo. He was NPR's senior Moscow correspondent in the early 1990s, when he covered the collapse of the Soviet Union and a wide range of political, economic, and social issues in Russia and the other independent states of the former Soviet Union.
From September 1989 to June 1991, Shuster was stationed in England as senior editor of NPR's London Bureau. For two months in early 1991, he was assigned to Saudi Arabia to cover the Gulf War. While at the London Bureau, Shuster also covered the unification of Germany, from the announcement of the opening of the Berlin Wall to the establishment of a single currency for that country. He traveled to Germany monthly during this time to trace the revolution there, from euphoria over the freedom to travel, to the decline of the Communist Party, to the newly independent country's first free elections.
Before moving to London, Shuster worked as a reporter and bureau chief at NPR New York, and an editor of Weekend All Things Considered. He joined NPR in 1980 as a freelance reporter covering business and the economy.
Prior to coming to NPR, Shuster was a United Nations correspondent for Pacifica News Service, during which he covered the 1980 election of Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe. He traveled throughout Africa as a freelance foreign affairs reporter in 1970 and again in 1976; on this latter trip, Shuster spent five months covering Angolan civil war and its aftermath.
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The International Atomic Energy Agency, meeting in Vienna on Friday, approves a resolution strongly critical of Iran. The resolution deplores Iran's failure to fully cooperate with IAEA inspectors amid growing suspicions Tehran is pursuing a nuclear weapons program. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.
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Supporters of outgoing CIA Director George Tenet say he leaves behind an agency with greater morale, increased covert-operation capabilities and much-improved relations with the U.S. president. But critics say Tenet's support of faulty intelligence on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction crossed the line into policy advocacy. Hear NPR's Mike Shuster.
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President Bush said Monday night that Iraqis will receive full sovereignty after June 30. But analysts note that the interim Iraqi government won't have any say over U.S. troops in the country, and it's questionable whether it will have full control over Iraq's military and police forces. Bush's timeline for Iraq will require a strong American military presence there for at least another year and a half. Hear NPR's Mike Shuster.
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The Iraqi prison abuse crisis is not going away -- much is known about the scandal, but there are lingering questions over whether the abuse was perpetrated by renegade soldiers or authorized by the chain of command. NPR's Mike Shuster looks at the scandal, the contradictions and unanswered questions.
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Many American officials and foreign policy experts say the United States has no choice but to stay in Iraq until a stable government is in place. They say pulling out too soon could cause a civil war, create a breeding ground for terrorists and damage American credibility. Now some experts across the political spectrum are challenging that view. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.
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Rising U.S. casualties, confusion about U.S. efforts to end violence in places such as Fallujah, and allegations of Iraqi prisoner abuse have many questioning the viability of U.S. policy on Iraq. Many blame the lack of a clear chain of command for the chaos. Some analysts say U.S. goals for Iraq are no longer attainable. Hear NPR's Mike Shuster.
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NPR's Mike Shuster reports that despite all the missed signals, poor intelligence and lousy communication between counter-terrorist agencies, politics did play a role in early 2001 in the inability of the U.S. government to anticipate al Qaeda attacks in the United States. Testimony before the commission investigating the government's actions before and after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks paints a picture of an incoming Bush administration unwilling to see the threat from al Qaeda as urgently as the outgoing Clinton administration did.
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Iranian officials say misunderstandings about the scope of the investigation performed by the International Atomic Energy Agency have led inspectors to discover elements of Iran's nuclear technology program that it had failed to declare openly. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.
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Last week's parliamentary elections have placed conservatives back in control of Iran's legislature. Reformers dominated parliament for the past four years with political support from Iran's president, Mohammed Khatami. Reformist leaders now fear a political crackdown from the right. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.
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Final results from Friday's disputed parliamentary elections in Iran are not expected for several days. A boycott urged by reformists after 2,500 reform candidates were disqualified may result in a lower turnout than a 67 percent showing four years ago, when reformists swept into power. NPR's Mike Shuster reports.