Miles Copeland, Jr.

Miles Axe Copeland Jr. (July 16, 1916 – January 14, 1991) was a founder and case officer of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), best known for his relationship with Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser and his public commentary on intelligence matters. Copeland participated in numerous covert operations, including the March 1949 Syrian coup d'état and the 1953 Iranian coup d'état.

A conservative who was influenced by the ideas of James Burnham, Copeland was associated with the American political magazine National Review.

Early life The son of a doctor, Miles Axe Copeland Jr. was born on July 16, 1916 in Birmingham, Alabama. He did not graduate from college.

According to history professor Hugh Wilford, nothing in Copeland's CIA files suggests he was a professional musician, although "several relatives and friends have testified to his musical ability." Copeland's books contain "several impressive statements about his days as a jazz musician," including that "he spent a week playing fourth trumpet in the Glenn Miller orchestra," but that claim has been discredited.

Copeland was married to the archeologist Lorraine Adie. He was the father of the music manager Miles Copeland III; the booking agent Ian Copeland; the film producer Lorraine (Lennie) Copeland; and the drummer Stewart Copeland, a founding member of the rock band the Police. Copeland was stationed in London and reportedly gained the top-secret "BIGOT" clearance and took part in discussions about Operation Overlord. Serving in London, he became a lifelong Anglophile. He married Lorraine Adie, a Scot he had met during the war while she was serving in the Special Operations Executive.

CIA career After the end of World War II and the creation of the CIA, Copeland was asked to organize the agency's information-gathering unit in the Middle East. He was stationed in Damascus, Syria, as a CIA case officer under the cover title "cultural attaché," With Kim Roosevelt, he arranged Operation Ajax, the 1953 overthrow of Prime Minister of Iran Mohammad Mosaddegh.

In 1953, Copeland returned to private life at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and remained a non-official cover operative for the CIA. He traveled to Cairo to meet Gamal Abdel Nasser, who had overthrown King Farouk and taken power in Egypt. He became a close advisor to Nasser on the development of the Mukhabarat secret police and other topics. With Richard P. Mitchell, Copeland conducted espionage activities on the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. In 1957 in Beirut, he was friends with Kim Philby and Nicholas Elliott and keeping an eye on Philby for James Jesus Angleton, Counterintelligence Chief for the CIA.

Copeland opposed major paramilitary CIA operations such as the failed Bay of Pigs Invasion of Cuba in 1961 on the grounds that they were impossible to keep secret because of their size.

Copeland's memoirs have a strong literary quality and contain many embellishments, which make it difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the covert operations that he describes. He was active in 1970s political efforts to defend the CIA against critics, including the Church Committee.