President-elect Joe Biden’s nomination of William Burns to be director of the CIA is an inspired choice.
Burns is the most senior and most respected diplomat in the US today. He is currently president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the think tanks to which experts go when they are out of government. It’s also the sponsor of the Carnegie Conference on Nuclear Policy, which I’ve attended for the past decade or so, also known as #nukefest. It’s THE gathering for experts on international nuclear issues. The next one will be virtual, in June.
Burns has been ambassador to Jordan and to Russia and has held a number of high posts in the State Department. He and Jake Sullivan (who is to be Biden’s National Security Advisor) laid the groundwork for the JCPOA agreement with Iran.
Why CIA? Many people expected Biden to name him as Secretary of State, but Antony Blinken will serve there. The head of the CIA is usually chosen from within the organization.
Gina Haspel is currently the director of the CIA. She is one of the few Trump appointees who actually has a background in and commitment to her agency. But she also was chief of a black site in Thailand during the Bush 43 administration. It’s time to repudiate the role of torture in intelligence gathering.
Diplomats are not strangers to the world of intelligence. Every embassy abroad includes CIA employees along with those from the State Department, the Russian embassy more than most. The State Department uses intelligence generated by the CIA, its internal agency, and other government intelligence agencies.
Burns is one of the best analysts of foreign affairs the country has. Here’s what he had to say about Russia in 2017. He’s also written a series of articles for The Atlantic.
We can read a number of messages into Burns’s nomination:
- Competence is back (This is a general message across Biden’s nominations)
- No more torture
- Tilt toward State Department as maker and executor of foreign policy
- Russia, we’ve got your number
- Allies, you can begin to trust our intelligence services again.
Photo: The Guardian
Cross-posted to Nuclear Diner
Brachiator
Thanks for the background on Burns. That he was involved in the Iran deal is certain to attract GOP opposition.
Ken
Psychic flash: None of Trump’s hires will end up there, unless as a cafeteria worker. Besides, they were probably all angling for a slot on Fox, or a position as a Parler influencer.
cain
How’s all this hopey, changey thing working out for ya?!
It’s working out pretty damn good!
sdhays
@Ken: I wouldn’t want to eat at the cafeteria if that’s the quality of people they hire
ETA: Burns looks like an absolutely fantastic choice.
Benw
He sounds cool and all but that ‘stache has to go
Brachiator
@Ken:
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, one of the think tanks to which experts go when they are out of government.
Of course, no real experts in the Trump administration.
JeanneT
This is encouraging – he sounds like a person who knows that accurate information leads to better decision making.
Spanky
His nomination is … exxxxcellent.
Ken
@Benw: Flashback to around 4 years ago, when some here were minimally happy at the report that Trump had nixed Bolton because he didn’t like the man’s stache. In retrospect, we should have realized that he’d just find someone worse.
What ever happened with Bolton’s book, anyway?
Emma from FL
I was very pleased to hear about this appointments. Actually I have been happy with all the appointments so far. Competent and experience people across the board. Feels damn good.
Brachiator
@Ken:
A lot of books on the Trump administration are probably going through some serious revisions.
Chyron HR
What about Krystal Ball? Doesn’t she deserve a cabinet post for not tweeting “Biden is a senile rapist” more often than she already did?
Just Chuck
I know it was T’s sole criteria for appointments, but that guy looks like he stepped out of central casting for the position of CIA Director. Partly due to the pondering expression.
Bill in Section 147
It will take a while to decompress but I am looking forward to the day when I can read about something the government is up to and consider whether or not it is good policy.
Geminid
@Benw: The mustache does seem odd today. It’s the Dean Acheson look. But Angus King has one, and I think Mark Kelly still has his.
Ken
@Brachiator: Ah, yes, hadn’t thought of that. I imagine the phrase “I was not in the room at the time and only found out about the decision later…” is being added on nearly every page.
jonas
Hopefully Democrats will respond with a lot of Nelson-style “haw-haw”s. Under the brilliant GOP/Trump plan to contain Iran via belligerent idiocy, Iran’s centrifuges are now happily whirling away producing 20% enriched uranium. Heckuva job, guys.
Ken
@Geminid: I had a mustache like that once, but for me it was the “too much trouble to shave the upper lip” look.
Ken
@jonas: After the Iranians indicted Trump a couple of weeks ago, someone suggested in the BJ comments that we extradite him in exchange for a resumption of the treaty and inspections. Sounds even better this week.
stinger
No. More. Torture.
I’d give up all else Burns brings to the position just for this.
Josie
I like mustaches, but then I am an old, so what do I know?
Another Scott
I find this bit interesting:
(Emphasis added.)
I haven’t found the citations of why he received those awards, but it’s a big deal. And shows (I think) that his expertise is not just in the rarified niceties of diplomacy (if there is such a thing).
The link has a ~ 75 minute interview with him.
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
guachi
Burns seems like an excellent choice. It’s clear Biden takes government seriously with his nominees.
Ken
@Another Scott: A disappointing lack of experience in setting up a website to sell his branded merchandise, and absolutely no appearances on “Dancing with the Stars.” Biden’s already scraping the bottom of the barrel.
(I hope sarcasm tags aren’t necessary.)
Feathers
One of the details I remember in the run up to the Iraq War is that the State Department Intelligence Office (unsure if this is correct name), which was made up of long time employees who had served overseas and were now back in Washington who made reports from publicly available sources, invariably offered more accurate information than those from the intelligence services and their clandestine sources. Makes sense to me. Good choice.
zhena gogolia
I’m so glad to hear you think this is a good pick.
trollhattan
Actions/inactions=consequences.
Brachiator
@Another Scott:
What the hell is Biden doing appointing someone with experience and gravitas?
Interesting stuff. Thanks for the info.
trollhattan
@Brachiator:
This aggression will not stand, man!
Cheryl Rofer
@Feathers: The State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) is one of the best in the business. Along with DOE’s intelligence and I think one other agency that I’m spacing out now, they got it right on Saddam Hussein’s aluminum tubes – not for centrifuges.
VOR
Yeah, but does he have a regular gig on “Fox and Friends”?
J R in WV
My dad was into a mustache, at one point he had a really great handlebar type thing going, which attracted a lot of attention, as facial hair wasn’t common at the time.
This appointment seems great, thanks, Cheryl, for the background information~!!~
WaterGirl
@trollhattan: They just don’t want to be “called” Republican. Likely more so-called Independents who aren’t independent at all, but are embarrassed to say they are Republican.
Maybe a few of them are horrified, and I’ll take anyone who is horrified at this point.
Calouste
@trollhattan: Still, that leaves 75 voters in Orange County who were motivated by the Beer Belly Putsch to update their voter registration to (R).
NotMax
@Ken
The C.I.A. cafeteria:
“What’s on the menu today? Any specials?”
“Sorry, that’s strictly on a need to know basis.”
:)
sab
@guachi: This is so heartening. Biden just doesn’t take government seriously; he knows who is experienced and good.
Jay C
@jonas:
Only an Amateur Forign Policy Analyst here, but unfortunately, I have a suspicion that President Biden and his entire Administration are going to find Iran policy a harder thing to shift than might be hoped. For several reasons:
Jay C
@Jay C:
ADD: I still think Burns is a good choice for CIA, and what I’ve seen of Biden’s picks for National Security and diplomatic slots leads me to be impressed at his priorities, i.e. intelligence, experience and competence.
WaterGirl
Very happy to hear your take on this nomination, Cheryl.
ewrunning
A superb choice. Also, like UN ambassador nominee Linda Thomas-Greenfield, a member of my Foreign Service entering class in 1982. They are two of the finest people you could ever meet.
Topclimber
I know I am dreaming but perhaps Biden could send an early message by moving our embassy back to Tel Aviv based on Bibi’s pre-inauguration provocation of yet more settlements.
As I recall, the exception to Congressional approval for moving the embassy to Jerusalem was security issues. Provoking the Palestinians yet again and with arrogant disdain for what a new US President wants sure fits that bill.
NotMax
@Topclimber
Adelson purchased that property.
ewrunning
@NotMax: That Adelson purchase of the Ambassdor’s residence (not the former chancery, i.e., Embassy office building) stinks to high heaven! Talk about a quid pro quo! GAO, IG and Congressional investigations are clearly in order.
Topclimber
@NotMax: But USA is the tenant. Does he have an irrevocable lease. In other words, so what?
Perhaps you mean the Tel Aviv embassy. Again, so what. My wild guess is that Tel Aviv has many secure buildings. Make the announcement and call a real estate broker.
Subsole
@Benw:
You would prefer Monsieur Bolton’s, perhaps?
Subsole
@Chyron HR: She can be secretary of fucking off to the attic without pay for the next 4 years…
YY_Sima Qian
Dead thread, but I have been pretty gratified by Biden’s choices for his diplomatic and national security team, other than SecDef going to a general. They are invariably experienced and level headed, and generally not given to ideological orthodoxy. Gives me hope that at least the US side will not intentionally land in the Thucydides Trap with China during the course of the great power competition. After all, the Sino-US relationship remains the most consequential one in the world, today and into the future. The competition part is unavoidable, even natural. Unbounded and destructive competition, on the other hand, would be ruinous to all involved.
In the waning days of the Trump Presidency, Mike Pompeo has been busy laying landmines for the Biden team in the China relationship: placing Chinese state owned and private enterprises on the Entities List left and right or sanction, on the thinnest pretenses; removing all State Department restrictions in terms of interactions with Republic of China (Taiwan), despite at least lip service to the “One China” principle being the foundation for the Sino-US normalization since 1972; sending the Ambassador to the UN (wife of Craft the coal magnate, utterly unqualified for the position) to Taiwan for a visit. His hope clearly is to handcuff the Biden team to the rapidly downward spiraling Sino-US relationship, to lock in a Cold War 2.0. Should the Biden team to remove some of the landmines, he can then use it as a cudgel to hit Biden and the Democrats for being “soft of on China”, ideally (so he thinks) for a 20214 Presidential run. Similar landmines are being laid in relation to Iran, and I am sure other policy areas.
Ironically, media in Taiwan is suspecting that the main purpose of Kelly Craft’s visit is to pressure Taiwan into purchasing US coal. (After all, by decommissioning its nuclear power plants, Taiwan will have to increase its dependence on coal fire power. Furthermore, the US became Taiwan’s #1 source for oil in 2020, despite Middle Eastern oil being cheaper; few other countries count the US as #1 source for oil.) Sec HHS Alex Azar visited Taiwan in December, ostensibly to laud Taiwan’s achievements in managing COVID-19, but the main outcome seems to have been pressuring its government to allow import of US pork laced with ractopamine.