Tag: William Burns

Experts Raise Concerns over History of CIA Director Overseeing Intel Push into China

Michigan Star Staff
William Burns

National security experts are raising concerns over CIA Director William Burns’ previous involvement with a D.C. institution that employed numerous Chinese Communist Party members, in light of his efforts to reorient the agency toward addressing the threat from China.

Recent reports have shed light on the historic shift underway at the U.S.’ most expansive intelligence directorate to rebuild a network of human spies in China, and outpace Beijing’s adaptation to a rapidly changing technological environment. However, Burns previously headed a think tank that hired people and groups professing membership to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), a fact that experts say raises red flags about Burns’ credibility.

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Biden’s CIA Director Took Secret Trip To China: Report

Michigan Star Staff

CIA Director William Burns made a covert trip to China in May for meetings with officials in a bid to restore deteriorating relations between Washington and Beijing, the Financial Times reported, citing five anonymous officials familiar with the situation.

The visit to China is Burns’ first and the most senior by any Biden administration official, underscoring how concerned the president is over deepening rifts in official communication between the competing countries, the FT reported. Yet, experts have raised concerns about the CIA director’s vulnerability to malign political influence from Beijing since the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed he formerly headed a Washington-based think tank employing undisclosed Chinese Communist Party (CCP) members.

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Report: ‘They’re Not Oracles’: U.S. Intelligence Agencies Failed to Predict Fall of Kabul to Taliban

Michigan Star Staff
aerial view of Kabul

U.S. intelligence agencies failed to predict how quickly Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, would fall to the Taliban, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Four agencies tracked the Taliban’s gains around Afghanistan starting in the spring of 2020 up until Taliban insurgents overthrew the U.S.-supported government in the capital city of Kabul, according to classified materials reviewed by the WSJ.

Around two dozen of the reports the WSJ reviewed predicted the Afghan government would collapse after U.S. forces withdrew, though none of them thought the government would fall as quickly as it did or with American troops still deployed in the region.

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