It stands as one of the most defining images of 21st-century geopolitics, capturing President Barack Obama and his national security team anxiously monitoring the live progress of Operation Neptune Spear—the high-stakes U.S. military raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, that resulted in the death of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.
Brigadier General Marshall B. “Brad” Webb was using a laptop inside this room to maintain a direct communication link with Vice Admiral William McRaven, who was commanding the raid from Afghanistan.
When President Obama entered to see what was happening, he chose not to pull rank or displace the General from his seat. Instead, the President pulled up a folding chair and quietly slouched in the corner, effectively shifting himself to the lower-left of the visual frame.