May 1, 2011
"Much has been made of this photograph that shows the President
and Vice President and the national security team monitoring in real
time the mission against Osama bin Laden. Some more background on the
photograph: The White House Situation Room is actually comprised of
several different conference rooms. The majority of the time, the
President convenes meetings in the large conference room with assigned
seats. But to monitor this mission, the group moved into the much
smaller conference room. The President chose to sit next to Brigadier
General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, Assistant Commanding General of Joint
Special Operations Command, who was point man for the communications
taking place. WIth so few chairs, others just stood at the back of the
room. I was jammed into a corner of the room with no room to move.
During the mission itself, I made approximately 100 photographs,
almost all from this cramped spot in the corner. There were several
other meetings throughout the day, and we've put together a composite
of several photographs (see next photo in this set) to give people a
better sense of what the day was like. Seated in this picture from
left to right: Vice President Biden, the President, Brig. Gen. Webb,
Deputy National Security Advisor Denis McDonough, Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton, and then Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
Standing, from left, are: Admiral Mike Mullen, then Chairman of the
Joint Chiefs of Staff; National Security Advisor Tom Donilon; Chief of
Staff Bill Daley; Tony Blinken, National Security Advisor to the Vice
President; Audrey Tomason Director for Counterterrorism; John Brennan,
Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism;
and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper. Please note: a
classified document seen in front of Sec. Clinton has been
obscured."
(Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
This official White House photograph is being made available only for publication by news organizations and/or for personal use printing by the subject(s) of the photograph. The photograph may not be manipulated in any way and may not be used in commercial or political materials, advertisements, emails, products, promotions that in any way suggests approval or endorsement of the President, the First Family, or the White House.
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