The New York Times takes a look at the Amnerican SpyMaster, William J. Burns the Central Intelliegence Agency Director….
The Biden admin has taken the wraps off keeping everything under the covers in dealing with the Russian’s in the Ukraine conflict…..Burns is actually an old Russian hand….
Including the NY Times piece….
“We’ve learned from that hard lesson.” The intelligence the agency and others collected on Russia’s plans to invade Ukraine, he said, “stands as a powerful example of that. It enabled us to provide strong, resolute and confident warning, to help the Ukrainians defend themselves and to help the president cement a strong coalition.”
The tableau was a reminder that Mr. Burns, 67, has for decades been a near-omnipresent if subdued actor on the American foreign policy stage, having served every Democratic and Republican president since Ronald Reagan, with the exception of Donald J. Trump. And yet the moment only hinted at how Mr. Burns, a key figure in the Biden administration’s support of Ukraine, has amassed influence beyond most if not all previous C.I.A. directors.
His ascent is an unlikely turn for a tall, discreet figure with wary eyes, ashen hair and a trim mustache, a sort you could easily imagine in a John Le Carre novel whispering into a dignitary’s ear at an embassy party that the city is falling to the rebels and a boat will be waiting in the harbor at midnight.
The impact of his two-year tenure has been as sweeping as it has been subtle. The C.I.A., demoralized and marginalized during the Trump years by a president who said publicly that he believed Mr. Putin over his own intelligence agencies, has entered a period of resurgent prestige. As a member of Mr. Biden’s inner circle who once served as the ambassador to Russia, Mr. Burns has helped restore America’s upper hand over Mr. Putin. Though spy chiefs are typically relegated to the shadows, the Biden administration has thrust theirs into the spotlight….
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Previous C.I.A. directors have played a role in U.S. foreign policy — George Tenet was harshly criticized for tailoring intelligence to justify the 2003 invasion of Iraq and served as an interlocutor in peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians — but the position has traditionally been viewed as an objective overseer of intelligence gathering separated from policy and political influence.
Mr. Burns, however, is the first C.I.A. director to have previously been a career diplomat (for 32 years), and is on a first-name basis with numerous foreign leaders. He speaks Russian, French and Arabic. “He’s one guy you weren’t bringing in and having to break out a map for, or having to explain why it is that the Turks don’t like the Kurds,” said Eric Traupe, who until last summer was the C.I.A.’s assistant director for the Near East….
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Mr. Burns and Mr. Biden go back roughly a quarter-century, when Mr. Burns was the U.S. ambassador to Jordan and Mr. Biden was the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. They grew closer during the Obama years, when Mr. Burns was the deputy secretary of state and Mr. Biden was vice president
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Should the president win a second term, people close to the administration speculate that Mr. Burns would be a candidate to replace Mr. Blinken, should Mr. Blinken choose to step down. Mr. Burns refuses to talk about it, as do his colleagues. Richard Armitage, Mr. Burns’s friend and former superior at the State Department, said only, “Whatever the president asks, he’ll do it.”
image…NY Times