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“We had come up with 50 good options,” he said in an interview with the American television channel NBC.

“My ops plan laid them out in black and white. But political leadership hadn’t given us the go-ahead to implement a single one.” Obama has been accused of vacillating on Syria since the start of the uprising against President Bashar al-Assad, and encouraging rebels by implying they had U.S. support but failing to intervene decisively.

Laux’s account is the fullest yet of the attempts by the CIA and its supporters in the administration to push through plans to overthrow Assad, in line with Obama’s apparent policy.

One element of the various plans was to pay regime associates of Assad to push him out.

However, full details are not given in the book, which had to be heavily vetted by the CIA prior to publication, a standard rule for former officers.

Much of the book is an account of Laux’s time working in Afghanistan and Syria, and describes his bitterness with failures of policy, including over Syria, which eventually led him to quit.

After his plans for Syria were rejected, he recommended that the CIA pull out altogether, but that idea was also turned down.

A CIA spokesman said: “Sadly, Laux’s career at CIA did not work out. We hope that someday, maybe with age and greater maturity, he will have better perspective on his time here.” However, the CIA has not disputed the facts.