William Burns
Director, Central Intelligence Agency
William Joseph Burns was born in April 1956 in Fort Bragg, North Carolina. He earned a B.A. in history from LaSalle University and M.Phil. and D.Phil. degrees in international relations from St. John’s College, Oxford, where he studied as a Marshall Scholar.
He entered the U.S. Foreign Service. He spent three years as Deputy Secretary of State. He was Under Secretary for Political Affairs for four years. He has served as Ambassador to Russia, Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, and Ambassador to Jordan.
He was nominated by President George W. Bush and confirmed by the Senate as a Career Ambassador in 2008, the highest rank in the U.S. Foreign Service. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2014, becoming president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He served four years as Deputy Secretary of State in President Obama’s administration, some of which was as undersecretary for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia for three years, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern Affairs, and later ambassador to Jordan.
He has also been executive secretary of the State Department and minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. He was Special Assistant to the President and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the United States National Security Council. He retired from the Foreign Service in 2014, later becoming president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
He was nominated by President Joe Biden to be the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. He was confirmed by the Senate and assumed office in March 2021.
Burns is married to Lisa Carty and has two daughters. He speaks English, French, Russian, and Arabic.
In the News…
CIA Director William Burns recently said the elite in Russia are feeling a great deal of anxiety about the judgment of Russian President Putin. He said this was especially so on the heels of a brief mutiny last month that appeared to catch the Kremlin off guard.
He stated that, as the CIA seeks to profit from the vulnerabilities the mutiny exposed, a video the CIA is using to try to secure Russian informants was viewed 2.5 million times in its first week. Director Burns said, “What it resurrected was some deeper questions… about Putin’s judgment, about his relative detachment from events, and even about his indecisiveness.”
“I think in many ways it exposed some of the significant weaknesses in a system that Putin has built,” Director Burns said. Even aside from the mutiny, such weaknesses “were exposed by Putin’s misjudgment since he launched this invasion” of Ukraine.
Speaking of the leader of the Wagner group that was stopped before their mutiny occurred, Director Burns said, “I think Putin is someone who generally thinks that revenge is a dish best served cold.” Calling President Putin the “ultimate apostle of payback,” the CIA director added, “If I were Prigozhin, I wouldn’t fire my food taster.”
Contact this Leader…
Did you pray for Director Burns today? You can let him know at:
The Honorable William Burns, Director
Central Intelligence Agency
1000 Colonial Farm Rd
McLean, Virginia 22101
