Career diplomat is choice to head the CIA
WASHINGTON — Presidentelect Joe Biden has selected William Burns, a career State Department official who led the U.S. delegation in secret talks with Iran, to run the CIA.
In selecting Burns, Biden is turning to an experienced diplomat with whom he has a long relationship. The two men have worked together on foreign policy issues, not just during the Obama administration, but also while Biden led the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Biden said Burns’ first task would be to make sure that intelligence collection and analys is were not influenced by politics after years of President Donald Trump’s attacks on the agencies.
The president-elect said that Burns, 64, “shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect.”
Biden has told his national security advisers that he wants to ensure that the CIA is collecting, analyzing and providing intelligence without political spin, former officials said. Burns has a reputation for nonpartisanship and has held key diplomatic posts in both Democratic and Republican administrations, experience that should make his confirmation by the Senate relatively straightforward.
Burns has worked with CIA officers throughout his career, though his experience is as a consumer of intelligence, not as a producer.
But former agency officials have asserted the most important quality in a director is not expertise in intelligence, but a relationship with the president and his top national security team, which Burns has.
The selection of Burns suggests that Biden is putting an emphasis on traditional national security threats. Burns has extensive experience with Iran and Russia.
He was instrumental in starting the secret talks with Tehran during the Obama administration, which ultimately resulted in the agreement in which Iran agreed to give up its nuclear program in exchange for relief from punishing sanctions on its economy by six world powers, including the United States. Trump withdrew from the deal in 2018.
Burns also served as ambassador to Russia from 2005-08, making him a keen observer of President Vladimir Putin. Russian interference in U.S. elections has been one of the most important intelligence issues in recent years.