The Deuxième Bureau and a reformed civilian intelligence, renamed as the Internal Security Forces Command (ISFC), started their activities in Lebanon.

On 15 December 1961, Col. Muhammad Hisham al-Samman was appointed as Commander of Internal Security Forces, assisted by a Committee under his presidency.

It was intensively trained by the Egyptian State Security on its domestic affairs such as political repression, mass surveillance, coercive interrogation techniques among others.

The renewed service was used in April 1964 to crackdown uprisings in Hama led by the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and backed by Egypt.

[10] After the February 1966 coup within the Ba'th Party, Salah Jadid emerged as the leader of Syria's most radical regime to date.

[14] Under the government of Hafez al-Assad and Ba'ath Party, especially from 1973, agents of Syria’s GSD were a frequent visitors in East Berlin for training.

[19] Six years later in April 2011, the US government imposed sanctions on Ali Mamlouk, saying he had been responsible for human rights abuses, including the use of violence against civilians.

[3] After the 18 July 2012 bombing of the Central Crisis Management Cell (Syria) and the death of its four key members of team, Mohammed Dib Zaitoun was named as head of the General Security Directorate.

[21][22] The General Intelligence Service was established on 26 December 2024 by the Syrian transitional government succeeding the GID, with Anas Khattab appointed as the director.

[25] The GID was also controlled by the President Bashar al-Assad through the National Security Bureau of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party Central Command.