Central Intelligence Agency activities in Syria since the agency's inception in 1947 have included coup attempts and assassination plots, and in more recent years, extraordinary renditions, a paramilitary strike, and funding and military training of forces opposed to the current government.

Coup of 1949

On 30 March 1949, Syrian Army Colonel Husni al-Za'im seized power from President Shukri al-Quwatli in a bloodless coup d'état. There are "highly controversial" allegations that the American legation in Syria—headed by James Hugh Keeley Jr.—and the CIA engineered the coup. Assistant military attaché (and undercover CIA officer) Stephen J. Meade, who became intimately acquainted with Colonel Za'im several weeks prior to the coup and was considered his "principal Western confidant" during Za'im's brief time in power, has been described as the coup's architect—along with the CIA's Damascus station chief, Miles Copeland Jr. Copeland later authored several books with "extraordinarily detailed accounts of CIA operations in, among other countries, Syria, Egypt, and Iran," considered "one of the most revelatory set of writings by a former US intelligence officer ever published." However, Copeland's memoirs have a strong literary quality and contain many embellishments, making it difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the events he describes. Moreover, Copeland's account of the Syrian coup in his 1989 autobiography The Game Player: Confessions of the CIA's Original Political Operative contradicts the earlier version presented in his 1969 The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics.

In The Game of Nations, Copeland suggested that Syria—as the first former colony in the Arab world to achieve complete political independence from Europe—was perceived in Washington as a test case for America's "capacity for exerting a democratizing influence on Arab countries." According to Copeland, the CIA attempted to "police" the July 1947 Syrian parliamentary election, which was marred by fraud, sectarianism, and interference by neighboring Iraq and Transjordan. When these elections "produced a weak, minority government" under Quwatli—the stability of which was called into question by Syria's defeat in the 1948 Arab–Israeli War—Keeley and other US officials became concerned "that Syria was on the verge of complete collapse," which could have empowered the Syrian Communist Party or other "radicals" (such as the Ba'ath Party and the Muslim Brotherhood). As a result, Keeley became amenable to a military coup "as a way of safeguarding ... the long-term prospects of democracy in the country." At Keeley's behest, Copeland wrote, Meade "systematically developed a friendship with Za'im ... suggested to him the idea of a coup d'état, advised him how to go about it, and guided him through the intricate preparations in laying the groundwork for it."

Available evidence, however, suggests that Za'im was in little need of prodding from the US According to the British military attaché in Syria, Za'im had been contemplating a coup since March 1947—over a year before he was introduced to Meade on 30 November 1948. Shortly before the coup, Za'im tried to win Western sympathy by producing a list of individuals, including Keeley, that were supposedly "communist assassination targets," but US officials were skeptical. While Za'im directly informed Meade of the upcoming coup on 3 and 7 March, the US was not the only foreign power apprised: Za'im notified British officials around the same time. In his conversations with Meade, Za'im outlined his progressive political program for Syria (including land reform) as well as his plans for dealing with the communist threat, concluding "[there is] only way to start the Syrian people along the road to progress and democracy: With the whip." Za'im struck a different tone in conversations with the British, citing his desire to establish friendlier ties with Britain's major allies in the area—Iraq and Transjordan. In The Game Player, Copeland provided new details on the American assistance to Za'im's plan, expounding that Meade identified specific installations that had to be captured to ensure the coup's success. However, Copeland also acknowledged that Za'im had initiated the plot on his own: "It was Husni's show all the way." Douglas Little notes that US assistant secretary of state George C. McGhee visited Damascus in March, "ostensibly to discuss resettling Palestinian refugees but possibly to authorize US support for Za'im." In contrast, Andrew Rathmell describes this hypothesis as "purely speculative." cf. Once in power, Za'im enacted a number of policies that benefited the US: he ratified the construction on Syrian territory of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) (which had been stalled in the Syrian parliament), banned the Communist Party, and signed an armistice with Israel.

Attempted regime change, 1956–57

The CIA made plans to overthrow the Syrian government because it would not cooperate with Western anti-communism.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), p. 85. "The short-sightedness of the neutralist government lay perhaps in its inability to perceive that its neutralism would lead to John Foster Dulles attempting to overthrow it. Syria was not behaving like Washington thought a Third World government should. For one thing, it was the only state in the area to refuse all US economic or military assistance. [...] Another difficulty posed by Syria was that, although its governments of recent years had been more or less conservative and had refrained from unpleasant leftist habits like nationalizing American-owned companies, US officials—suffering from what might be called anti-communist paranoia or being victims of their own propaganda—consistently saw the most ominous handwritings on the walls." Early in 1956, the plan initially called for the use of the Iraqi Army; it then shifted its focus to agents within Syria itself.Saunders, The United States and Arab Nationalism (1996), p. 50.

Operation Straggle, 1956

National Security Council member Wilbur Crane Eveland, CIA official Archibald Roosevelt, and Michail Bey Ilyan, former Syrian minister, met in Damascus on 1 July 1956 to discuss a US-backed 'anti-communist' takeover of the country.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), p. 86. They made a plan, scheduled for enactment on 25 October 1956, in which the military would

take control of Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, and Hamah. The frontier posts with Jordan, Iraq, and Lebanon would also be captured in order to seal Syria's borders until the radio stations announced that a new government had taken over under Colonel Kabbani, who would place armored units at key positions throughout Damascus. Once control had been established, Ilyan would inform the civilians he'd selected that they were to form a new government, but in order to avoid leaks none of them would be told until just a week before the coup.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), pp. 86–87.

The CIA backed this plan (known as "Operation Straggle") with 500,000 Syrian pounds (worth about $167,000) and the promise to support the new government.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), p. 87. Although Secretary of State John Foster Dulles publicly opposed a coup, privately he had consulted with the CIA and recommended the plan to President Eisenhower.Saunders, The United States and Arab Nationalism (1996), p. 49.

The plan was postponed for five days, during which time the Suez Crisis happened. Ilyan told Eveland he could not succeed in overthrowing the Syrian government during a war of Israeli aggression. On 31 October, John Foster Dulles informed his brother Allen Dulles, the Director of the CIA: "Re Straggle our people feel that conditions are such that it would be a mistake to try to pull it off". Eveland speculated that this coincidence had been engineered by the British in order to defuse US criticism of the invasion of Egypt.Saunders, The United States and Arab Nationalism (1996), p. 51.

Operation Wappen, 1957

DCI Allen Dulles continued to file reports about the dangers of Communism in Syria. The CIA planned for another coup, code-named "Operation Wappen" and organized by Kermit Roosevelt. Syrian military officers were paid off in anticipation. Bribes reportedly totaled $3,000,000.

The coup failed when some of these officers revealed the plan to the Syrian intelligence service. They turned in the CIA bribe money and identified the officers who had tendered it. Robert Molloy, Francis Jeton, and Howard E. "Rocky" Stone were all deported.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), p. 88. "But the coup was exposed before it ever got off the ground. Syrian army officers who had been assigned major roles in the operation walked into the office of Syria's head of intelligence, Colonel Sarraj, turned in their bribe money and named the CIA officers who had paid them. Liet. Col. Robert Molloy, the American army attaché, Francis Jeton, a career CIA officer, officially Vice Consul at the US Embassy, and the legendary Howard Stone, with the title Second Secretary for Political Affairs, were all declared personae non-gratae and expelled from the country in August. Col. Molloy was determined in leave Syria in style. As his car approached the Lebanese border, he ran his Syrian motorcycle escort off the road and shouted to the fallen rider that 'Colonel Sarraj and his commie friends' should be told that Molloy would 'beat the shit out of them with one hand tied behind is back if they ever crossed his path again.'"John Prados, Safe for Democracy: The Secret Wars of the CIA; Chicago: Ivan R. Dee (Rowman & Littlefield), 2006; p. . The US State Department denied Syrian accusations of a coup attempt, and banned Syria's ambassador to the US. US Ambassador James Moose, who was on home leave during the coup, but surely knew its details, was not allowed back into the country. The New York Times backed the US government's claim and suggested that the story had been fabricated for political purposes.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), pp. 88–89.Stephen Dorril, MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service; New York: Touchstone, 2000; p. 656. The decision by President Eisenhower and Secretary Dulles, to appoint veteran diplomat Charles W. Yost as the new US Ambassador to Syria, was meant to help clean up the mess that the president had created.

After the coup attempt was exposed, the US government and media began describing Syria as a "Soviet satellite". One intelligence report suggested that the USSR had delivered "not more than 123 Migs" to the country. Reporter Kennett Love later said that "there were indeed 'not more than 123 Migs'. There were none." In September 1957, the US deployed a fleet to the Mediterranean, armed several of Syria's neighbors, and incited Turkey to deploy 50,000 troops to its border. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles suggested that the US sought to invoke the "Eisenhower Doctrine" of retaliating against provocations, and this intention was later confirmed in a military report. No Arab state would describe Syria as a provocateur, and these military deployments were withdrawn.Blum, Killing Hope (1995), pp. 90–91.

Assassination plot, 1957

Explicit documents from September 1957 reveal a plot, including collaboration with the British intelligence service MI6 in a plot, to assassinate three Syrian officials in Damascus. These targets were: Abdel Hamid al-Sarraj, head of military intelligence; Afif al-Bizri, army chief of staff; and Khalid Bakdash, leader of the Syrian Communist Party—all figures who had gained politically from exposure of "the American plot".Jones, "The 'Preferred Plan'" (2004), p. 404. Details about this conspiracy were revealed by a "Working Group Report" uncovered in 2003 among the papers of British Defence Minister Duncan Sandys: