President-elect Joseph R. Biden chose William J. Burns, a career official at the State Department who led the US delegation in secret negotiations with Iran, to head the Central Intelligence Agency.
In selecting Mr. Burns, Mr. Biden is turning 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 Biden was leading the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Burns has also worked for a long time with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s choice for national security adviser, and has been influential in helping to promote the young man’s career.
Biden’s choice sends a message that American intelligence will not be influenced by politics.
In a statement on Monday morning, the president-elect said that Mr. Burns “shares my deep conviction that intelligence must be apolitical and that the dedicated intelligence professionals who serve our nation deserve our gratitude and respect.”
Still, Mr. Burns’ experience is as an intelligence consumer, not as a producer. CIA directors are expected to drop their policy recommendations and focus on information and forecasts. Still, former agency officials said the most important quality of a director is not intelligence expertise, but the relationship with the president, which Burns has.
During his presidency, President Trump undermined and dismissed intelligence officials and called them “passive” and “naive” in his analysis of the threats to national security posed by Iran.
Mr. Burns is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He has clearly stated that American diplomacy was undermined in the Trump administration.
The Presidential Transition
Described as a “steadfast hand” and a “very effective firefighter” by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Burns spent 32 years in the State Department, where he was an American ambassador in Moscow and Jordan, and in high-level leadership positions in Washington.
Mr. Burns has been a trusted diplomat in the Republican and Democratic administrations. He played an important role in the agency’s most important and painful moments in 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 Force Base in Germany to Washington after the attack on the American complex in Benghazi, Libya. In 2002, Mr. Burns wrote a memo entitled “The Perfect Storm”, which highlighted the dangers of American intervention in Iraq.
Mr. Burns retired from the State Department in 2014.
For a time, Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the CIA, was considered the top candidate for the position of chief agency. But some Democratic senators expressed public and private reservations. Senate liberals, including Ron Wyden of Oregon, opposite choosing Mr. Morell, accusing him of defending torture. Morell’s representatives said Wyden incorrectly portrayed his background and comments on the CIA’s interrogation program.
Previously, Thomas E. Donilon, former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, withdrew his name from consideration for the post. David Cohen, a former deputy director of the CIA, was also considered.
A key question will be how Mr. Burns can work with Avril D. Haines, Mr. Biden’s choice to lead the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Biden’s transition team said Ms. Haines will be the senior intelligence officer in the administration and does not intend to make the CIA director a formal member of the cabinet. In previous administrations, there has always been tension between the director of national intelligence and the director of the CIA.
Mr. Burns was considered a likely candidate to govern the State Department in the next Biden government. He could be instrumental in helping Biden restart discussions with Tehran after Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018.