training seminar for Syrian "activists"

""The Americans introduced themselves as CIA officers and said they were there to help with the overthrow of Syria's authoritarian president, Bashar al-Assad. The activist declined to be named for this article, because he didn't want to be connected publicly to U.S. intelligence. He is respected in Aleppo, and I first met him, in another southern Turkey hotel, at a State Department–funded training seminar for activists, where he was a keynote speaker.""