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In the universe of historic photographs, few are more iconic this this image of key White House policymakers watching and waiting for confirmation that SEAL Team Six had succeeded in capturing or killing Osama bin Laden.

Although this photo is known as the Situation Room picture, White House photographer Pete Souza actually took it squeezed into a corner of the small adjacent conference room into which President Barack Obama had stepped in order to watch the video feed in real time. A plate of sandwiches and other snacks, fetched earlier in the day from Costco by a White House staffer, was abandoned in the main Situation Room.

The result: a moment of almost tangible tension and anxiety among the silent group of senior leaders. We dont see CIA Director Leon Panetta, who brought the first news of bin Laden'sAbbottabad compoundeight months earlier, only days before the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Nor do we see Vice Admiral William McRaven, the head of JSOC (Joint Special Operations Command), a special ops veteran who had commanded or participated in more than a thousand similarly hazardous ventures. He was in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, supervising the SEAL teams mission from there. Still, the image captures a defining moment in history, offering a rare glimpse into who the key White House players wereand what they were thinkingas they waited to hear the words Geronimo (bin Ladens code name) EKIA (enemy killed in action).

READ MORE: How SEAL Team Six Took Out Osama bin Laden

What no one looking at this photo can see is that Biden, Obamas vice-president and later elected as president, was fingering his rosary beads as he watched events unfold. The devoutly Roman Catholic Biden had been wary of the raid, Obama would recall in his memoirs. Biden himself later insisted that his advice had merely been to wait to be sure it was the right decision. The photo does capture some of that ambivalence and anxiety, to a greater extent than can be seen on the stony visages of other opponents of the raid, like Defense Secretary Robert Gates. When the SEAL team confirmed that Osama was dead, the VP gripped Obamas shoulder, squeezed it and softly said, Congratulations, boss.

President Barack Obama andNational Security Adviser Tom Donilonduring a meeting in the White House Situation Room, discussing the mission to capture or kill Osama bin Laden, May 1, 2011.

Pete Souza/The White House/Getty Images

The 44th president of the United States, perched on what Souza described as a folding black chair, is one of the most informally dressed people in the roomand simultaneously the most intensely focused on what was unfolding in front of him. Obama had decided very early on in his first term that he wanted to bring Osama bin Laden to justice. I wanted to remind the worldthat these terrorists were nothing more than a band of deluded, vicious killers, he later recounted in his memoirs. The president, still wearing the clothes in which he had played golf earlier in the day (to avoid alerting anyone else to the fact that something unusual was happening at the White House), stayed out of the way of his team until just before the helicopters arrived at the compound. He wrote that didnt want to sidetrack them by having them rehash all the plans and the strategies theyd deploy to address any glitches.

When he realized there was a live aerial view of the compound on offer in a smaller conference room, thats where he headed; thats how the most powerful figure in the room ended up sitting on the side of the image. This was the first and only time as president that Id watch a military operation unfold in real time, he wrote later. When one of the helicopters was damaged on landing, a disaster reel played in my head. Waiting and watching, he wrote, was excruciating.

WATCH: Revealed: The Hunt for Bin Laden, premiering Sunday, May 2 at 8/7c on The HISTORY Channel.

At the center of the table, in a commanding central chair, sits Brad Webb, an Air Force general, watching the live stream of the video and overseeing all the communications with the special forces. When Obama walked into the small conference room from the main situation room, Webb tried to give Obama his seat, only to be told by the president to stay where he was. When he raised his head to glance around the room, Webb later recalled thinking to himself, I should be freaking out right now, with all of the countrys leadership watching him. Instead, he stayed calm and in the zone.

The fact that McDonough was fast enough to follow the president and grab a seat around the small conference room table, leaving his boss, Tom Donilon, standing behind him, may give us a hint of his growing influence in the Obama administration; he would become chief of staff to the president when Obamas second term began. McDonough, involved in the planning of the operation from its earliest stages, sweated the details, as Obama recalled.

National Security Advisor Tom Donilon, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper listen as Leon Panetta, Director of the CIA speaks during a meeting in the Situation Room on May 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Pete Souza/White House Photo/Getty Images

There were audible gasps, Obama later recalled, when the group received confirmation of bin Ladens death. Is Hillary Clinton trying to contain a gasp in this photo, or to stifle a cough due to springtime allergies? Even she couldnt later recall clearly. Those were 38 of the most intense minutes, she later said. The risks were enormous. In spite of the tension that clearly shows on Clintons face, she had supported the decision to go ahead with the raid. She was also concerned about the presidents decision to monitor the video feed in real time. Do you think its a good idea for the president to watch this? she asked a national security staffer, who reassured her he wouldnt be directly managing anything. Having cast her vote in favor of the raid, Clinton clearly remained anxious about the consequences of any mishaps for Obamas presidency.

Gates had been one of those wary of undertaking the Abbottabad raid, reminding Obama of what had happened in 1980 when U.S. forces tried to use helicopters to rescue 53 Americans held hostage in the embassy in Teheran. (The mission was aborted when one helicopter crashed en route in the desert; eight military service members died.) A safer option, he believed, would be to use bombs to obliterate the compound altogether. Nonetheless, he would call the presidents decision to go ahead with the raid courageous.

READ MORE: 9 Unexpected Things Navy SEALS Discovered in Osama bin Laden's Compound

Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, speaks during a meeting in the Situation Room on May 1, 2011 in Washington, D.C.

Pete Souza/White House Photo/Getty Images

If he had failed that night, I think it would have cost Obama the presidency, Mullen said later, citing the thought that haunted him as he and others watched the raid unfold. Curious about what he had been thinking at the precise moment that photographer Pete Souza clicked the shutter, Mullen later asked whether the photo had a timestamp. It didnt.

Donilon had been among the first to learn of Obamas determination to find bin Laden, during a May 2009 Oval Office meeting during which the president instructed him to help develop a formal plan and issue a presidential directive. Like Clinton, he wanted to avoid the impression that Obama was micromanaging the raid and suggested that the president not communicate directly with McRaven in Jalalabad. It was at Donilons suggestion that Webb and his video feed had been based in the smaller conference room.

Daley, who served as Obamas chief of staff for a year until January 2012, is the only man in the room wearing a full suit and tie, thanks to his wifes insistence that he recognize the momentous nature of the day. One way or the other this presidency is either over, or were still breathing, he recalled thinking. For Daley, the only person to sit in on every meeting during the raids planning stages who wasnt part of the intelligence or national security establishments, it had been the right decision. The next morning, he awoke with the realization that, if I got fired today, it would be OK.

READ MORE: 8 Facts About Osama bin Laden's Final Hideout

In 2021, Blinken achieved a national profile as President Joe Bidens secretary of state. At the time this picture was taken, he was largely unknown outside the Beltway and the Washington community. Shortly after Souzas iconic photograph was published, David Letterman interviewed Mullen on his talk show, and, producing the photo, pointed to Blinken. Who is that guy? He obviously doesnt belong in the photograph, Blinken remembered Letterman joking. Did he just come in off the tour of the White House?

The only other woman in the room and the youngest member by far of this lofty group of policymakers, Tomason became well-known as a result of the photo. But the woman herselfand her thoughtsremain a mystery, probably because of the clandestine nature of her work for the National Security Council.

Together with Donilon, Brennan had been tasked with trying to conceive what the Abbottabad raid would look like. In spite of his support for a mission that was in part his brainchild, his knuckles were white throughout the entire attack. Minutes seemed like hours, he recalled, even after the SEAL team members were back on board their helicopters with bin Ladens body and a trove of data retrieved from the compound. They still had to get out of Pakistani airspace safely, he knew. Obama named Brennan to head the CIA in 2013.

Right up until the last minute, we couldnt confirm he was there, recalled Clapper, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant general who served as president Obamas top intelligence official from 2010 until 2017. Hed been an advocate of launching the mission, arguing that at least with a raid, youd have people on the ground who could make judgments. In this image, hes waiting to find out whether that vote of confidence was justified.

READ MORE: Why Did US Forces Bury Osama bin Laden's Body at Sea?

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The Bin Laden Raid: Inside the Situation Room Photo - History