Biden chooses veteran diplomat Burns as CIA director
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate longtime diplomat William Burns to serve as director of the Central Intelligence Agency, the transition committee said in a news release.
Burns, a career diplomat who served in the Middle East and Russia, will inherit the country’s premier intelligence agency as national security and espionage from rival nations such as China, Iran and Russia are of chief concern to the incoming administration.
The transition team touted Burns as well-prepared for the challenge, noting
“he has the experience and skill to marshal efforts across government and around the world to ensure the CIA is positioned to protect the American people.”
Burns “shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect,” Biden said in a statement.
“A national security expert with decades of experience serving under Democratic and Republican presidents, Ambassador
Bill Burns has a deep understanding of the global threats and challenges facing our country,” Vice President-elect Kamala Harris said in a statement.
Burns left the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after 33 years of working in diplomacy under Democratic and Republican administrations. Burns served as the deputy secretary of state in the Obama administration, only the second career diplomat to serve in the position.
Burns was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, the assistant secretary of state for near eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005 and the ambassador to Jordan
from 1998 to 2001.
Most recently, Burns was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think tank with a focus on foreign policy and international affairs.
Biden selected Burns over a field of career intelligence officials, several of whom had come under scrutiny from some Democrats for their involvement in controversial espionage and torture programs in their careers.
Burns has been an outspoken critic of Trump-era foreign policy and reflected in his published writings on the shortcomings of past administrations.