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WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. tapped David S. Cohen to return as deputy head of the C.I.A., inserting an official who is aware of the company nicely alongside the veteran diplomat he selected to steer it, the Biden transition staff introduced on Friday.
Mr. Cohen had been thought of a prime contender to grow to be director of the company, however Mr. Biden as a substitute nominated William J. Burns, who has held quite a lot of distinguished diplomatic posts. Because Mr. Burns has by no means labored for the C.I.A., bringing again Mr. Cohen offers him a deputy who’s trusted contained in the company and may very well be a possible successor.
And as a result of the deputy place doesn’t require Senate affirmation, Mr. Cohen will have the ability to start work because the performing C.I.A. director on Inauguration Day, whereas Mr. Burns’s nomination is into consideration.
In talks with transition officers, Mr. Cohen outlined an bold agenda for the C.I.A. to bolster its work in crucial areas, together with world local weather change and well being points.
During the Obama administration, Mr. Cohen was concerned within the C.I.A. evaluation that Russia sought to intervene within the 2016 election to help President Trump’s election.
Mr. Cohen informed the Biden transition staff that intelligence businesses should broaden their examination of international interference within the United States. Mr. Cohen, in keeping with individuals conversant in his views, believes the federal government should transcend election interference to additionally scrutinize how international powers could also be making an attempt to supply assist or affect extremist teams.
Mr. Cohen, 57, has an in depth working relationship with Avril D. Haines, Mr. Biden’s nominee to be director of nationwide intelligence. Ms. Haines served as deputy C.I.A. director earlier than Mr. Cohen, and the 2 labored intently collectively on the National Security Council “deputies committee.”
Ms. Haines’s affirmation listening to was to be held on Friday, nevertheless it was postponed as Republicans and Democrats debated over learn how to schedule a labeled, in-person question-and-answer session amid security issues in the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
The robust ties between them “will serve the agency exceedingly well,” mentioned Adm. William H. McRaven, the retired former head of Special Operations Command. Mr. Cohen, Admiral McRaven added, “has the experience, the leadership skills, the temperament and the respect of the entire intelligence community.”
Current and former intelligence officers spoke warmly of Mr. Cohen’s first stint on the company, noting each his advocacy for the C.I.A. contained in the Obama administration and his means to shortly win over colleagues.
“He is a great listener,” mentioned John O. Brennan, a former director. “As soon as he arrived, he felt very much at home, and that was something people detected because he became an ardent supporter and defender of the agency.”
Mr. Cohen can be an enthusiastic desk tennis participant, dominating video games at C.I.A. charity fund-raisers, in keeping with an official.
More critically, former officers mentioned, Mr. Cohen confirmed a deft hand at coping with the issues of C.I.A. line officers. After the 2016 election, he gathered C.I.A. personnel from demographic teams that Mr. Trump had insulted in the course of the marketing campaign, together with Muslim and Hispanic officers, telling them the company would proceed to worth variety and assist their careers, in keeping with former officers.
Before his first stint on the C.I.A., Mr. Cohen was the Treasury Department’s beneath secretary for terrorism and monetary intelligence from 2011 to 2015. In that function, he presided over a 700-person staff, traveled extensively and labored with diplomats and international intelligence officers to construct assist for the Obama administration’s sanctions in opposition to Iran.
His in-depth information of the Islamic State’s makes an attempt to smuggle oil in 2014 earned him the nickname “financial Batman” within the Obama White House.
“He came across to officers both at Treasury and at C.I.A. as exceptionally smart, especially on issues having to do with terrorism and international money flows,” mentioned David Priess, a former C.I.A. officer who’s now on the Lawfare Institute. “And they also found he is just pleasant to brief, not at all a difficult personality to work with.”
Mr. Cohen, together with Mr. Biden’s different intelligence picks, is predicted to comply with the suggestions of the House Intelligence Committee that referred to as for a shift of sources to focus extra on China. It is an space of bipartisan settlement: Republican House members have additionally pressed for extra sources to counter China, and beneath John Ratcliffe, the director of nationwide intelligence, the Trump administration has directed new efforts to shore up information-gathering on the nation.
Mr. Cohen is hardly well-known past Washington, although after the top of the Obama administration, he made a cameo look as a bedraggled commoner within the HBO sequence “Game of Thrones.” When the C.I.A. posted a picture of his appearance on Twitter, Mr. Cohen joked, “Way to blow my cover!”
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