Tom Sylvester
 Tom Sylvester    ( spook) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Nationality | US | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Parents | John Sylvester Jr. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Relatives | John Sylvester | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CIA spook who was Deputy Director for Operations 2023-2025.
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Thomas Sylvester Jr. is US spook who became Deputy Director for Operations in 2023. He briefly was acting director of the CIA in January 2025.
Background
Sylvester is the son of a Foreign Service officer, likely John Sylvester, Jr.[spook?], and and grandson of a US admiral John Sylvester.[1] He grew up overseas, attending junior high school in Norway. He was a United States Navy SEAL.[2]
Career
He later joined the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).[2] He is a veteran operations official for the CIA and was active in several locations overseas, including in the Middle East, where he was exposed as the CIA's Chief of Station in Damascus in 2006.[3] He was active in Iraq both before and after the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
He became operations chief for Europe and Eurasia in 2021.[1] According to the CIA's podcast, The Langley Files, Sylvester was active in the 2022 Ukraine-Russia war.[2]
Sylvester rose to the position of Deputy Director for Operations in the summer of 2023, a key position in the deep state, leading the clandestine arm of the CIA, replacing David Marlowe.[4][4] In February 2024, Sylvester appeared on the CIA's podcast, speaking publicly for the first time,[2][4] discussing the importance of human assets in espionage despite the "proliferation of cyberintelligence."[4]
Sylvester was named by President Donald Trump as Acting Director of the CIA January 20-23, 2025[5] as Trump's nominee for the position, John Ratcliffe, had not yet been confirmed by the Senate.[6][7]
Sylvester's follow-on job as London Chief of Station was revoked in 2025, allegedly in response to his on-the-record interview with Tim Weiner for the book "The Mission." This resulted in his retirement from the agency.[8][1]
A Document by Tom Sylvester
| Title | Document type | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Document:Regional counterterrorism strategy for Iraq and its neighbors | minutes | Minutes of a meeting of all the senior US spooks and spooky diplomats from Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Turkey met in Kuwait in March 2006 to develop a regional "counterterrorism" strategy. They agreed the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay was a key recruitment driver |
References
- ↑ a b c https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/08/01/cia-civil-war-tom-sylvester/
- ↑ a b c d https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/file-014-a-conversation-with-cias-spymaster-in-chief/id1645885248?i=1000647428783
- ↑ https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06KUWAIT913_a.html
- ↑ a b c d https://archive.today/20240302063242/https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/28/us/politics/cia-podcast-spies.html
- ↑ https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/designation-of-acting-leaders/
- ↑ https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5096538-acting-department-heads-trump/
- ↑ https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/01/23/trump-cia-director-john-ratcliffe-confirmed-senate/77903103007/
- ↑ https://techinquiry.org/?entity=thomas%20sylvester%2C%20jr%2E&guard=
