Situation Room

Situation Room is a photograph taken by White House photographer Pete Souza in its namesake, the White House Situation Room, at 4:05 p.m. on May 1, 2011. The photograph shows President of the United States Barack Obama along with his national security team, receiving live updates from Operation Neptune Spear, which led to the killing of Osama bin Laden, the leader of al-Qaeda. Background Air Force Brigadier General Brad Webb was sitting at the table monitoring the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound when Michael Leiter, then director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center, entered the room. Leiter does not appear in the photograph, but was followed by Robert Gates, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, and others. Soon the president entered the room, commenting "I need to watch this," and sat down next to General Webb. According to journalist Peter Bergen, the group was watching a live feed from an unmanned drone flying overhead. Leon Panetta said that Obama did not see bin Laden being killed. Clinton said: "We could see or hear nothing when [the SEALs] went into the house. There was no communication or feedback coming so it was during that time period everyone was particularly focused on just trying to keep calm and keep prepared as to what would happen." The picture was taken at 4:05 pm local time in Washington (16:05 EDT), which was 12:35 am local time in Afghanistan. President Obama later said he believed the picture was taken about the time the room's occupants were informed or realized that one of the raid's helicopters had crashed. White House photographer Pete Souza commented on this photograph for Time in late 2012, writing: