Seriously, Taliban listening to CIA diplomacy when only money and power talk?
The Secret that is no longer secret.
That CIA Director William Burns, former Obama Under Secretary of State, met with the Taliban recently has gone viral. Whet exactly he said is unclear and whether any of it was effective is less clear. According to the reports, the Taliban has set a hard deadline for evacuations and refused to extend the agreed upon timeline.
Most likely, even the hardline know better than to create chaos on U.S. troops until the deadline passes, at least.
Obama said of Burns in 2014: “Since I met Bill in Moscow in 2005, I have admired his skill and precision. Since I took office, I have relied on him for candid advice and sensitive diplomatic missions – he has been a skilled advisor, consummate diplomat, and inspiration to generations of public servants. Given his vital role on our leading priorities, earlier this year I asked him to delay his retirement, and I’m grateful to him and Lisa for doing so. The country is stronger for Bill’s service.”
Last month, Burns told NPR: “The trend lines that all of us see today are certainly troubling. The Taliban are making significant military advances; they’re probably in the strongest military position that they’ve been in since 2001….At CIA, our principal mission is to stay focused on the danger that al-Qaida or ISIS will try to reconstitute themselves in Afghanistan. We will retain significant capabilities both in and around Afghanistan to collect information when and if terrorist groups try to reconstitute themselves and again, plot against or attack U.S. interests as well. And al-Qaida is not the same threat that it was 20 years ago. We’ve had — we’ve significantly degraded their capability there —”
William J. Burns, former CIA Director, was president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, the oldest international affairs think tank in the United States. Ambassador Burns retired from the U.S. Foreign Service in 2014 after a thirty-three-year diplomatic career. He holds the highest rank in the Foreign Service, career ambassador, and is only the second serving career diplomat in history to become deputy secretary of state.
Ambassador Burns is author of the bestselling book, The Back Channel: A Memoir of American Diplomacy and the Case for Its Renewal (Random House, 2019). The book was awarded the Douglas Dillon Book Award by the American Academy of Diplomacy. He is also a contributing writer at the Atlantic.
Prior to his tenure as deputy secretary of state, Ambassador Burns served from 2008 to 2011 as under secretary of state for political affairs. He was ambassador to Russia from 2005 to 2008, assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs from 2001 to 2005, and ambassador to Jordan from 1998 to 2001. His other posts in the Foreign Service include: executive secretary of the State Department and special assistant to former secretaries of state Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright; minister-counselor for political affairs at the U.S. embassy in Moscow; acting director and principal deputy director of the State Department’s policy planning staff; and special assistant to the president and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs at the National Security Council.
Ambassador Burns speaks Russian, Arabic, and French.