24.06.2017 - 05:20 [ New York Times ]

C.I.A. Set Up Secret Back Channel With Syria to Try to Free U.S. Hostage

So in early February, Mike Pompeo, the C.I.A. director, spoke on the phone with Ali Mamlouk, the head of Syria’s National Security Bureau intelligence service, a man accused of human rights abuses during the country’s civil war and slapped with sanctions by the United States. The call was the highest-level contact between the governments in years.