Gina Bennett

Gina M. Bennett is an American writer and retired intelligence analyst. She worked as a Central Intelligence Agency terrorism senior targeting analyst and as the senior advisor for the Directorate of Strategic Operational Planning at the National Counterterrorism Center. She is known for being one of the first intelligence services personnel to identify Osama bin Laden as a threat to United States national security, which is covered in the documentaries Manhunt: The Search for Bin Laden, The Spymasters, and Makers: Women Who Make America. Bennett is an adjunct professor in security studies at Georgetown University. She authored three books, National Security Mom: Why "Going Soft" Will Make America Strong in 2008, How Kids Can Be Good Citizens: Lessons for Keeping America Strong & Safe in 2013, and America Needs a Time-Out: National Security Mom 2 in 2019.

Early life and education Bennett is the daughter of a United States Navy veteran who served during the Korean War.

She graduated from the University of Virginia and earned a master's degree from the Marine Corps War College.

Bennett began her career as a terrorism watch officer and, following a violent attack in Algeria in 1991, she compiled classified reports on a figure known as "Abu Abdullah", later identified as Osama bin Laden, who had financed the Afghan Arab terrorists responsible for the attack in Algeria.

After retiring from the intelligence services in 2022, Bennett began working as the strategic advisor for Girl Security, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization focused on empowering and advancing young women into national and international security missions. She teaches ethics in intelligence support to national security and hunter-gatherer national security. She was presented the DAR Patriot Award by President General Pamela Rouse Wright.

Personal life She has five children.