When CIA chief William Burns arrived in the UAE in May with a US delegation following the death of the UAE president, it was his third visit to the country as director of the spy agency – reflecting not only the country’s strategic importance to Washington but also its weight. Burns’ role in the U.S. national security strategy.
Fifteen months into President Biden’s tenure, Burns, a veteran diplomat, has taken a unique place in the president’s hive, say current and former U.S. officials. While running the Central Intelligence Agency, he also became a kind of special envoy on any issue that is a complex issue.
In mid-April, he met Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman, with whom Biden wants to improve relations after keeping his distance from him because of his involvement in the death of Saudi journalist Jamal Khushkji. Burns visited Qatar, Oman and the United Arab Emirates during the same trip.
Last August, he traveled to Kabul after the collapse of the US-backed Afghan government to hold talks on counter-terrorism with the Taliban leader, a longtime US rival.
In November, Burns, the former US ambassador to Russia, was in Moscow to talk over the phone with President Vladimir Putin in an unsuccessful attempt to persuade him not to invade Ukraine. So said people familiar with the subject.
The results that Burns brings are “much less visible”
The CIA leader is often the man the White House selects for “people you do not want to talk to but must,” said a former senior administration official. He has “a long track record of dealing with some of the scariest and most challenging dictators the world has to offer.”
Diplomacy with the scent of Burns intelligence is another arrow in Biden’s dart garbage. The CIA director works in coordination with State Department Secretary Anthony Blinken and other Biden aides, officials say today and in the past.
But determining the extent of the impact of such conversations, which include sensitive intelligence sharing and coordination on major security challenges, can be difficult for outside observers. Compared to the conversations that Linken is having with different countries, for example, the results that Burns brings are “much less visible,” a senior administration official said.
Foreign travel has long been part of the CIA director’s role. Many spies are often on the road when they visit stations and remote war zones and to exchange intelligence with counterparts in foreign countries. Mike Pompeo, when he was the director of the CIA, secretly visited North Korea to lay the groundwork for direct talks between then-President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. George Tennett played an intense role in the Clinton administration’s efforts to achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
But it looks like Burns, 66, is going to break a record. (Unlike state presidents and secretaries, there is no full public record of all CIA executive travel.) A spokeswoman for the agency confirmed he has traveled 16 times since taking office in March 2021. Since visiting Europe, South Asia, the Middle East, South Korea, Africa and Latin America, as can be understood from reports from American and foreign officials and information accessible to the public.
Tenet has traveled about 30 times in the seven years he has run the CIA, said a man familiar with his travel schedule.
Unlike any of his predecessors at Langley headquarters, Burns brings with him several decades of diplomatic experience. He served 33 years in the State Department, where he rose to the position of Deputy Secretary of State, and was a partner in leading the U.S. team in the secret talks that led to the nuclear deal with Iran, which the U.S. has since abandoned.
“While he has taken care not to cross the line between policy and intelligence, he has the unique perspective of someone who has had a long career of personal pursuits with world haters, including Vladimir Putin,” said House Speaker Adam Schiff (California Democrat), chairman of House Intelligence Committee.
Aiming to replace Blink?
Burns’ role in high-profile international crises has led to speculation in Washington that he may one day seek to be appointed Secretary of State.
Government officials today and in the past have described the relationship between Blink and Burns as good and say the two have known and worked together for years. The two men talk on the phone about once a week, and the CIA director’s duties are fully supported by the Secretary of State, a senior administration official said.
“My feeling is… That there is an understanding on both sides,” said Mark Leventhal, an intelligence historian and former State Department and CIA official. “Burns is an inside player,” he said. “This is the way the Biden administration has decided to run it.”
Plans to send Burns on certain missions sometimes begin with meetings between various offices in Washington to discuss global crises, the senior official said.
Burns’ secret missions – like the August 2021 trip to Kabul to study the battle – are more suited to a spy than to a State Department secretary, who travels with a delegation of journalists and meets a wall of cameras and microphones wherever he goes, officials said. CIA executives are not accompanied by the media, and the agency has not discussed the details of Burns’ travels. Information about his travels was obtained from reports from foreign governments that hosted him and from media reports.
On his trip from April to the Gulf, Burns voiced to US leaders in Saudi Arabia and Saudi Arabia concerns about the emerging collaborations of these countries with China, people familiar with the travel said. In Oman, his talks with Sultan ruler Haytham bin Tariq al-Sayyid included U.S. concerns about smuggling Iran’s weapons through Oman to Iran’s allies in Yemen, one person said.
“Some countries prefer to deal with senior U.S. intelligence officials,” said Larry Piper, former chief of staff to former CIA Director Michael Hayden. “They will take them more seriously than the diplomats,” he said.
In Washington, Burns has been praised by lawmakers from both parties for the way he runs the CIA. He is also respected among the agency’s employees, say former CIA officials who are in contact with colleagues who are still there.
In lengthy and tense White House meetings in which international crises are discussed, colleagues say Burns’ presence is stabilizing and reassuring. “He’s usually the person who tells a really dark joke, or talks about the elephant in the room when others feel they can not,” the former official said.
While on the road, Burns maintains close contact with his deputy, David Cohen, and other senior officials. When the US-backed Afghan government collapsed last August, he was in the middle of a trip between Middle Eastern countries and joined a meeting of Biden’s top aides on national security via video and video. His.
Burns wrote in his memoir that he learned early on the importance of travel and diplomacy face-to-face from Secretary of State George Schultz, who called it “garden care.” The title of Burns’ memoir, from 2019, is “The Back Channel.”