Elected President Joseph R. Biden has chosen William J. Burns, a career official of the State Department who led the U.S. delegation into secret talks with Iran, to run the Central Intelligence Agency.
In choosing Mr. Burns wend mr. Bid him to an experienced diplomat with whom he has a long relationship. The two men worked together on various foreign policy issues, not only during the Obama administration, but also while Mr. Biden led the Senate’s foreign relations. Mr. Burns has also been working with Jake Sullivan for a long time, a choice for Mr. Pray for National Security Adviser, and has played an influential role in advancing the younger man’s career.
The choice of mr. Biden sends a message that American intelligence will not be influenced by politics.
In a statement early Monday, the president-elect said that Mr. Burns “shares my deep conviction that intelligence should be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals who serve our country deserve our thanks and respect.”
But the experience of mr. Burns is as a consumer of intelligence, not as a producer. CIA directors are expected to set aside their policy recommendations and focus on information and forecasting. Former agency officials claim that the most important characteristic of a director is not expertise in intelligence, but a relationship with the president, which Mr. Burns it.
During his presidency, President Trump undermined and fired intelligence officials, calling them ‘passive’ and ‘naive’ in their analysis of Iran’s national security threats.
Mr. Burns is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He expressed his conviction that US diplomacy in the Trump administration had been damaged.
The presidential transition
Burns is described as a “steady hand” and a “very effective firefighter” by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. He spent 32 years in the State Department, where he was the U.S. ambassador to Moscow and Jordan, and high-level leadership positions in Washington.
Mr. Burns was a trusted diplomat in Republican and Democratic governments. He has played a role in the agency’s most prominent and painful moments over the past two decades.
In 2012, he accompanied the bodies of Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens and three other Americans on a C-17 flight from Ramstein Air Base in Germany to Washington following the attack on the American complex in Benghazi, Libya. In 2002, Mr. Burns wrote a memorandum entitled “The Perfect Storm,” highlighting the dangers of US intervention in Iraq.
Mr Burns retired from the State Department in 2014.
Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA, has long been considered the leading candidate for the highest agency position. But some Democratic senators have expressed public and private concerns. Senate Liberals, including Ron Wyden of Oregon, opposition Mr. Morell elected and accused him of defending torture. Morell’s representatives said Wyden had inaccurately portrayed his record and comments about the CIA interrogation program.
Thomas E. Donilon, a former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, had earlier withdrawn from the post. David Cohen, a former deputy director of the CIA, was also considered.
An important question is how Mr. Burns can work with Avril D. Haines, the choice of mr. Pray to lead the office of the director of national intelligence. The Biden transition team said Haines would be the senior intelligence official in the government and did not intend to make the CIA director a formal cabinet member. In previous administrations, there was often tension between the director of national intelligence and the CIA director.
Mr. Burns was considered a likely candidate to run the State Department in the incoming Biden administration. He may be critical of Mr. Biden to help resume talks with Tehran after Trump withdrew from the 2018 nuclear deal.