In this photograph President George W. Bush meets with his National Security Council in the Situation Room on September 20, 2001. Participants from left include: Robert S. Mueller, director of the FBI; Lewis Libby, chief of staff to the Vice President; George Tenet, director of the CIA; Attorney General John D. Ashcroft; Secretary of the Treasury Paul H. O'Neill; Vice President Dick Cheney; President Bush; Secretary of State Colin Powell; Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld; and Gen. Henry H. Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

In this photograph by Pete Souza, President Barack Obama holds a strategy review on Afghanistan in the Situation Room of the White House on September 30, 2009. Among his advisers in the room were Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, and Adm. Michael G. Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

This photograph by Pete Souza is of President Barack Obama and his National Security team meeting on September 29, 2009 in the Situation Room at the White House. Undersecretary of State William J. Burns is seated at right just prior to his departure for the P5+1 talks with Iran in Geneva, Switzerland. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is seated at center.

This photograph in the Situation Room was taken on April 15, 1986. President Ronald Reagan meets for a briefing on the U.S. bombing of Libya with the National Security Council staff.