Biden to tap William J. Burns, a former career diplomat, as CIA director

Former envoy served as U.S. ambassador to Russia and Jordan and as deputy secretary of state.

William Burns, 64, is a former US ambassador to Russia and Jordan and a former deputy secretary of state who served under Republican and Democratic administrations. Picture: AFP

President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate William Burns, a former career diplomat with 33 years of service, as director of the CIA, filling in the last top slot on his national security team.

Mr Burns, 64, is a former US ambassador to Russia and Jordan and a former deputy secretary of state who served under Republican and Democratic administrations. He has extensive experience with sensitive national security matters.

“Bill Burns is an exemplary diplomat with decades of experience on the world stage keeping our people and our country safe and secure,” Mr Biden said. “He shares my profound belief that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals serving our nation deserve our gratitude and respect.”

Mr Burns, who retired in 2014 and serves as president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, isn’t an intelligence agency professional. But he has played a key, often behind-the-scenes, role in numerous diplomatic and intelligence initiatives.

During the Obama administration, Mr Burns led a US delegation for secret talks with Iran, negotiations that eventually became public and paved the way for a 2015 deal curbing Iran’s nuclear work in exchange for relief from harsh economic sanctions. President Donald Trump repudiated that agreement, withdrawing the US from the multiparity accord in 2018 and reimposing sanctions.

Earlier, following the September 11, 2001, attacks, Mr Burns and senior CIA officials met quietly with Libya’s then-intelligence chief, Musa Kusa, eventually forging a settlement over the Pan Am 103 terrorist attack and dictator Muammar Gaddafi’s agreement to abandon weapons of mass destruction programs.

As the State Department’s top Middle East hand in July 2002, Mr Burns and two colleagues wrote a memo to Secretary of State Colin Powell warning that an invasion of Iraq could result in sectarian unrest and the crumbling of the country’s dilapidated infrastructure, and would ultimately benefit Iran.

The memo, dubbed The Perfect Storm, didn’t explicitly argue against war in Iraq but warned only of possible consequences. In his 2019 memoir, The Back Channel, Mr Burns lamented that he and other diplomats didn’t push harder against the 2003 invasion. “Years later, that remains my biggest professional regret,” he wrote.

Mr Burns is widely seen in Washington as a respected nonpartisan figure, and there are no known barriers to his confirmation by the Senate, which Mr Biden’s Democratic Party will control after winning last week’s Senate races in Georgia. Republicans and some Democrats may question him about his role in the Iran nuclear deal, which critics say did too little to stop Tehran’s nuclear work and gave it too much in return.

Leading Democrats praised the choice of Mr Burns.

“As a career diplomat under Democratic and Republican presidents, he has established himself as a smart and tested public servant who is free from political interference. Now more than ever, our intelligence and defence communities deserve leaders who will not politicise our national security institutions,” said Democrat senator Mark Warner, the incoming chairman of the Senate intelligence committee.

The CIA is currently led by an agency veteran, Gina Haspel, and former senior officials — reflecting the views of those working at the spy agency — had hoped Mr Biden would pick another veteran from their ranks.

But the initial reaction was positive.

“His choice provides the agency a good hearing at the White House and a respected Washington figure who can affect reforms the agency requires,” said Douglas London, a 34-year veteran of the CIA’s clandestine service who worked with Mr Burns on the outreach to Gaddafi’s Libya.

Former deputy CIA director Michael Morell, whom Mr Biden had considered for the top agency job, wrote on Twitter: “I’ve known Bill Burns for decades. I’m thrilled for him and for the agency. He will be one [of] the great @cia directors. His command of the issues, his deep respect for intelligence, and his care for people will ensure it.”

His nomination comes more than six weeks after Mr Biden announced he had chosen Avril Haines as his director of national intelligence. Some analysts saw the early pick of Ms Haines as a sign that the president-elect wanted to emphasise the role of the intelligence tsar’s office in overseeing 18 spy agencies and units.

The CIA has traditionally guarded its independence and prerogatives zealously. Its heft within an administration often rests on the agency director’s relationship with the president. The Biden transition had previously said that the CIA director won’t be a formal member of Mr. Biden’s cabinet.

The Wall Street Journal