High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Gary Berntsen is a decorated former Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) career officer who served in the Directorate of Operations between October 1982 and June 2005. During his time at the CIA, he served as a CIA Station Chief on three separate occasions and led several of CIA’s most important counterterrorism deployments including the United States’ response to the East Africa Embassy bombings and the 9/11 attacks. He was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal in 2000 and the Intelligence Star in 2004. He ran for the US Senate in 2010 for Chuck Schumer`s seat, but lost the Republican primary to Jay Townsend, who in turn lost the general election.