William Burns is a former diplomate serving in the Biden administration as Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) since March 2021. He was previously the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. His prior experience includes more than 30 years in the U.S. Foreign Service including service as Ambassador to Russia and Ambassador to Jordan.

In August 2022, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported that it had found “at least 20” members of the Chinese Communist Party who had worked for the Endowment during Burns’s tenure at Carnegie.

Early Life

Burns, the son of a two-star Army general, ¹ attended LaSalle University in Philadelphia where he earned a bachelor’s in history. He also attended Oxford University where he earned a master’s and doctoral degree in international relations. ²

Career

As of September 2022, Burns serves in the Biden administration as the Director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and has served in that capacity since being confirmed by the U.S. Senate in March 2021. ³ Previously, Burns was the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a foreign policy think tank. Before his tenure at Carnegie, Burns had served for more than thirty years in the U.S. Foreign Service where he held the highest rank of Career Ambassador. Burns also served as Deputy Secretary of State in the Obama administration and, prior to that, served in capacities including Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S. Ambassador to Russia, and U.S. Ambassador to Jordan. ⁴

Burns authored The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal and has received three Presidential Distinguished Service Awards. ⁵

CIA

Burns was confirmed as the Director of the CIA in 2021 after his confirmation was held up by U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX). Cruz initially hoped to pressure the Biden administration to issue sanctions regarding the Nord Stream 2 pipeline between Russia and Germany. Cruz later lifted the hold on Burns’ confirmation. ⁶

As the director of the CIA, Burns prioritized the agency’s focus on China by creating a China Mission Center and prioritized combating transnational and technological threats by creating the Technology and Transnational Mission Center. Burns is also said to have cracked down on employees within the agency who contributed to an unhealthy work environment. Also under his leadership, the Havana Syndrome Task Force announced that the reported cases of mysterious medical symptoms experienced by U.S. government officials and diplomats abroad were “unlikely to have been caused by Russia or another foreign adversary.” ⁷

Controversy

In August 2022, a Daily Caller News Foundation investigation found that while Burns headed the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace the Endowment employed at least 20 members of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Of the alleged CCP members, four had joined Carnegie while Burns was president of the organization. ⁸

Carnegie’s website didn’t disclose the CCP ties that these individuals had, and their involvement with the organization coincided with general warnings from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) that key American institutions could be the target of “malign influence operations” from the CCP. One critic said, “Either he appears to have allowed government-linked experts from a hostile power to affiliate with an organization boasting many former and future U.S. appointees or he didn’t know or bother to check — a remarkable lapse in operational security for a highly-cleared former U.S. official and pretty disqualifying for a director of Central Intelligence.” ⁹

Personal Life

Burns is married to Ambassador Lisa Carty, the U.S. Representative to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations and alternate U.S. Representative to the Sessions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. Previously, Carty spent over 20 years as a Foreign Service Officer and, earlier in her career, she led the Global Health Program at the left-of-center Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. ¹⁰ Burns and Carty have two daughters. ¹¹

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2.  “William J. Burns.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1014.
3. Herb, Jeremy. “Senate Confirms William Burns to Be next CIA Director after Cruz Lifts Hold.” CNN. Cable News Network, March 18, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/william-burns-confirmed-cia-director-senate-voice-vote/index.html.
4. “William J. Burns.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1014.
5.  “Director of the CIA.” Central Intelligence Agency. Central Intelligence Agency. Accessed August 27, 2022. https://www.cia.gov/about/director-of-cia/.
6. ^[1] Herb, Jeremy. “Senate Confirms William Burns to Be next CIA Director after Cruz Lifts Hold.” CNN. Cable News Network, March 18, 2021. https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/18/politics/william-burns-confirmed-cia-director-senate-voice-vote/index.html
7. London, Douglas. “75 Years for CIA, and One for William Burns.” The Hill. The Hill, July 6, 2022. https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/3543281-75-years-for-cia-and-one-for-william-burns/.
8. Lenczycki, Philip. “Exclusive: Biden’s CIA Director Employed Undisclosed Chinese Communist Party Members While Heading Elite DC Think Tank.” The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller, August 14, 2022. https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/14/william-burns-cia-carnegie-cusef-marco-rubio/.
9. Lenczycki, Philip. “Exclusive: Biden’s CIA Director Employed Undisclosed Chinese Communist Party Members While Heading Elite DC Think Tank.” The Daily Caller. The Daily Caller, August 14, 2022. https://dailycaller.com/2022/08/14/william-burns-cia-carnegie-cusef-marco-rubio/.
10.   “Lisa Carty, U.S. Representative to the UN’s Economic and Social Council to the United Nations.” United States Mission to the United Nations, April 14, 2022. https://usun.usmission.gov/our-leaders/lisa-carty-u-s-representative-to-the-uns-economic-and-social-council-to-the-united-nations/.
11. “William J. Burns.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Accessed August 16, 2022. https://carnegieendowment.org/experts/1014.