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Syria Closes Office of American Pro-Arab Propaganda Group

May 3, 1967
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The Government of Syria has ordered the expulsion of the "American Friends of the Middle East" –a pro-Arab propaganda organization — from Syria on grounds that the AFME allegedly spied for the United States Central Intelligence Agency. The AFME office in Damascus was ordered closed, according to reports received here today.

AFME is among organizations which received CIA funds. It denied espionage activities and said its main function was educational including sponsorship of Arab students. AFME maintains offices in Cairo, Amman, Baghdad, and elsewhere in the Middle East. Members of Congress questioned the propriety of AFME subsidization by the CIA after it was shown that many Arab students brought to America under AFME auspices engaged in anti-Israel and anti-Jewish propaganda movements at various universities and colleges.

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