CIA Director William Burns’ holoholo abroad this year to meet nonintelligence-affiliated leaders, including Egypt’s and Qatar’s presidents just this last, and the White House’s elevation in July of his office to a Cabinet position, has fueled misperceptions of growing CIA power.
People ask me, “Is Langley supplanting Foggy Bottom?” “Has CIA coopted the Oval Office?” “Is the Illuminati rising?”
Hang loose, brah! Let’s put this into context to see if dark forces are at work or if this is a nothing burger with a side of kalo fries.
“Intelligence diplomacy” blurs the line between intel officers and State Department foreign service officers (diplomats). No question. This is nothing new, though. U.S. special envoy for the Six Party Talks with North Korea (2003-2006) Joe Detrani was a career CIA operator (as a division chief, he signed the papers transforming me from analyst to ops officer). Our ambassadors to Iran, Germany and the U.N. have included former CIA Directors William Colby and Richard Helms (also an officer of the OSS, CIA’s predecessor) and deputy CIA director and Military Intelligence Hall of Fame inductee Gen. Vernon Walters.
The president’s selective use of spy chiefs — cloaks pinned back, daggers sheathed — as diplomatic envoys can be effective in advancing foreign policy, especially with countries where security services are power-and-authority symbols. In such countries, CIA station chiefs’ access to foreign leaders can surpass that of our local ambassador. (A senior royal family member cooked and served pancakes to one of my chiefs during a private-residence breakfast … not something the local ambo ever enjoyed. Even as a junior officer, I used my CIA affiliation to more easily secure meetings with senior foreign security personnel and political oppositionists than could higher ranking U.S. diplomats, much to their chagrin.)
Let’s not forget, too, that Burns is actually a career diplomat, previously serving as ambassador to Russia and Jordan. He’s a political appointee to CIA, not a career intel officer.
This type of reallocation of talent across agencies has long existed in our government. Former President Donald Trump moved CIA Director Mike Pompeo over to run the State Department. George Bush Sr. was CIA director before moving to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.
CIA Director Leon Panetta (who I personally briefed) went on to be defense secretary. Recently departed State Department spokesman Ned Price — frequently on TV — was previously a CIA analyst (we worked together at Langley during the Obama administration). 2024 GOP presidential candidate Will Hurd, who withdrew his bid in October, was an agency ops officer for a decade before becoming a Texas congressman.
(No, this incestuousness is not “deep state.” Using highly capable people with very solid government experience in different roles reflects sound leadership; it advantages our nation.)
The U.S. is not alone in this practice. In August, the heads of Australia’s Office of National Intelligence and Secret Intelligence Service met with Timore-Leste’s prime minister in Dili. In mid-July, Israel quietly dispatched the Mossad director to Washington for talks with the White House to discuss normalizing Saudi-Israeli ties. (Unidentified CIA personnel reportedly were present, but the main U.S. interlocutors were nonintel types.) In the past few years, former Mossad chief Yossi Cohen has acted as Tel Aviv’s special envoy to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
It’s not always a positive thing. In June, Turkey’s President Erdogan appointed to the position of foreign minister (think “secretary of state”) National Intelligence Organization head Hakan Fidan — notorious for kidnapping from abroad political critics of Erdogan. Most analysts view this appointment as an authoritarian’s use of clandestine levers of power to sustain his rule, not the leveraging of a savvy spy master to more effectively advance international relations.
“What about Burns’ Cabinet appointment?” First, it bolsters his standing when he is dispatched by the White House to represent our nation on any issue. Second, there is precedence. Trump’s cabinet included CIA Directors Pompeo and Gina Haspell — the first female director, who offered me a plum assignment to delay my plans to pursue a simpler life in Hawaii (I said “no”…a story for another day). The practice goes back at least to the Reagan administration with CIA Directors William Casey and William Webster, whose seat at the table came through concurrent roles as director of Central Intelligence (a dual-hatted position of the pre-9/11 era).
“With Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines already in the cabinet, isn’t this duplicative?” No. Two different tools in the president’s toolbox. Watch the news for how he uses them differently. (Readdressing “cross pollination,” Haines was previously deputy CIA director, deputy national security advisor, and White House deputy counsel for national security affairs).
So … I’m calling “nothing burger.” Let me know if you disagree (and if you find the fries). A hui hou!
J.P. Atwell is a former senior CIA operations officer. His two-decade career began as an intelligence analyst and took him to every continent, save Antarctica. He now calls Hawaii Island home. He welcomes your comments at island.intelligencer@gmail.com.