Burns has worked with Biden and is a old hand in working with foreign affairs information at the State Department…He has Russian and Iran experience …
It appears that the Biden admin will seek to have the intelligence agency return to gathering data and information and move away from being an action organization…
The Biden/Harris admin will have no reason to fight against and ignore the United States Intelligence community like President Trump did…And Burns coming from the diplomatic side of foreign affairs will him give greater access to places America needs overseas …
Biden IS signalling a reengagement in the outside world that Trump had no interest in with someone that has access to the American President…
Incoming Vice President Harris also served on the Senate Intelligence Committee…
We may also begin to get looks about things Trump did not want the public to know….
During his time in office, President Trump has undermined and dismissed intelligence officials, calling them, for instance, “passive” and “naïve” in their analysis of national security threats posed by Iran.
The pick of Mr. Burns suggests that Mr. Biden is putting an emphasis on traditional national security threats. Mr. Burns has long experience with Iran and Russia.
He was instrumental in starting the secret talks with Tehran in the Obama administration, which ultimately resulted in the nuclear deal in which Iran agreed to give up its nuclear program in exchange for relief from punishing sanctions on its economy by six world powers, including the United States. Mr. Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal in 2018, and Mr. Burns could prove critical in aiding the administration in restarting discussions with Tehran.
Mr. Burns sensed an opening to Iran in 2013, with the landslide election of Hassan Rouhani as president. He teamed up with Jake Sullivan, who will be Mr. Biden’s national security adviser, to meet with key Iranians to scope out the parameters of a possible deal. That mission was successful, though it took two more years to negotiate the deal.
The experience gave Mr. Burns a deep understanding of the Iranian nuclear program and put him in near-daily touch with the intelligence officials tracking it. While he did not conduct the negotiations himself, he was key to keeping the five other nations involved — Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China — and the European Union all pulling in the same direction in the negotiations.
Mr. Burns also served as ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, making him a keen observer of President Vladimir V. Putin. Russian interference in American elections has been one of the most important intelligence issues in recent years…
…
Former intelligence officials have told the Biden transition team that tracking foreign attempts to influence domestic white supremacist groups, as well as other extremist elements, should be a priority of all intelligence agencies. While the C.I.A. cannot track American groups, it can hunt for foreign operatives attempting to influence them from overseas….
Note…
Biden still other intelligence community picks to make such as the head of the NSA, the agency that does the snooping world wide…
With the revealing of the wide Russian cyberwarfare actions?
This pick WILL BE important….
image…Drew Angerer / Getty