# Station chief
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{{Short description|Government official}}
{{Intelligence}}
{{More citations needed|date=December 2010}}
A '''station chief''' is a government official who is the head of a team, post, or function usually in a foreign country. Historically, it commonly referred to the head of a defensible structure such as an [ambassador](/source/ambassador)'s residence or colonial outpost.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}} In Germany, a {{lang|de|Stationsleiter}} (station leader) was the government's chief representative in a colonial possession like [South Sea Islands](/source/South_Sea_Islands). It may also be used to refer to the manager of remote scientific stations such as those in the [Antarctic](/source/Antarctic) and [Jarvis Island](/source/Jarvis_Island), an uninhabited minor U.S. Pacific island.
However, in modern times, this designation is usually used for a senior official of a certain country's [intelligence agency](/source/List_of_intelligence_agencies), stationed in a foreign country, who manages all espionage operations in that country. The Russian title for this post is ''[Rezident](/source/Rezident)''.
==CIA==
The Station Chief, also called Chief of Station, is the top U.S. [Central Intelligence Agency](/source/Central_Intelligence_Agency) official stationed in a foreign country who manages all CIA operations in that country, equivalent to a KGB [Rezident](/source/Resident_spy). The station chief is often a senior U.S. intelligence officer who represents the [Office of the Director of National Intelligence](/source/Office_of_the_Director_of_National_Intelligence) (ODNI) in his or her respective foreign government, whose name may ("declared status") or may not ("undeclared status") be officially revealed to the host nation and other intelligence agencies.[{{cite news
|url=https://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-11-13/news/36769415_1_director-leon-e-panetta-michael-v-hayden-cia-director
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130622210424/http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2009-11-13/news/36769415_1_director-leon-e-panetta-michael-v-hayden-cia-director
|url-status=dead
|archive-date=22 June 2013
|newspaper=[Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)
|author=Walter Pincus
|author-link=Walter Pincus
|title=Primacy of CIA station chiefs confirmed, ending interagency row
|date=12 November 2009}}][
{{cite news
|url=https://apnews.com/article/614ddeb27bbf4fcf84f1562e4f92fc80
|publisher=[AP News](/source/AP_News)
|author=Ken Dilanian
|author-link=Ken Dilanian
|title=White House mistakenly reveals CIA official's name
|date=26 May 2014}}] Former officers are not usually allowed to include their positions as station chiefs in their [résumés](/source/r%C3%A9sum%C3%A9s) even after their covers have been lifted.