Essentially the most safe location within the White Home, and perhaps the world, simply acquired a full makeover.
In 1961, after the Bay of Pigs invasion, President John F. Kennedy requested a safe facility to feed intelligence data straight into the White Home. That room was up and operating a 12 months later when Kennedy huddled with advisors, gathering as a lot data as potential as a shock battery of Soviet missiles had been positioned in Cuba.
In 2003, it is the place George W. Bush gave the fateful order to start the Iraq Battle. And in 2011, Barack Obama sat transfixed, surrounded by Cupboard officers and army commanders, watching in actual time as Navy Seals executed a dangerous and harmful secret plan to seize or kill Osama bin Laden.
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All of it occurred within the Scenario Room. In actuality, what’s referred to as the Scenario Room is a 5,000 sq. foot complicated within the West Wing of the White Home that’s house to convention rooms, small workplace rooms for telephone calls and an obligation watch station staffed across the clock. And its first top-to-bottom renovation since 2007 wrapped up final month.
President Joe Biden excursions the renovated White Home Scenario Room on Tuesday, September 5, 2023, within the West Wing of the White Home. Official White Home Photograph by Carlos Fyfe.
The undertaking took precisely one 12 months, price simply over $50 million, and enhanced safety of the complicated throughout the board.
“Every thing is new … the complete facility was demolished,” White Home Scenario Room Director Marc Gustafson informed reporters Thursday throughout a tour of the newly renovated facility.
Gustafson detailed modifications small and enormous to probably the most well-known Delicate Compartmented Info Facility on this planet, also referred to as SCIFs, to a small group of reporters Thursday. There’s new lighting, new interchangeable magnetic Workplace of the President and Vice President seals and modern screens that may now immediately entry intelligence data. However reporters, together with this NewsHour reporter, solely had a pen and notepad to doc all of it.
It is the Scenario Room, in spite of everything — a spot the place the commander in chief discusses the very important secrets and techniques of probably the most highly effective army on Earth — and no telephones are allowed. In truth, no electronics, in any respect, are allowed. A few reporters on the tour had been informed handy over their Apple watches after forgetting to take away them earlier than coming into. Nobody with out the proper clearance will be allowed to listen to or see what goes on behind the doorways. As reporters walked via on Thursday, “Unclassified” was displayed throughout screens in brilliant inexperienced — a transparent signal that there was nothing high secret about at the moment’s go to.
Within the John F. Kennedy Convention Room — the one typically portrayed in Hollywood films with a big rectangular picket desk within the middle — the beige partitions are out. Now, wooden panels and new screens line the room. The brand new screens can undertaking extra content material than earlier than, Gustafson stated, making all intelligence group data simply accessible.
On this August 2021 picture, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris meet with nationwide safety advisers to debate the scenario in Afghanistan, earlier than the renovation of the White Home Scenario Room. The beige partitions of the previous John F. Kennedy Convention Room are actually gone.Official White Home Photograph by Erin Scott.
For this renovation they dug deeper — 5 toes right down to be precise — to assist energy the improved gear with extra electrical capability and bigger HVAC ducts.
One massive change: The small adjoining room the place Obama, then-Vice President Joe Biden and high generals monitored the Bin Laden raid is gone. Preserved in its entirety, from chairs to tables and partitions, the room will ultimately be on show within the Obama Presidential Middle in Jackson Park, Chicago.
That historic house is now occupied by two small “breakout rooms” the dimensions of storage closets that every comprise a pc and telephones for Cupboard secretaries and different high officers to make calls as wanted.
Wooden paneling strains the partitions of the newly renovated Scenario Room. Photograph courtesy of the White Home.
A second massive change: A glass telephone sales space beforehand situated within the complicated simply exterior of the JFK Convention Room has been moved to a storage facility in preparation for eventual show at a future Biden presidential library.
The explanations for the renovation: heavy put on and tear on a facility that typically sees foot visitors from high officers, together with the president, seven days every week. Plus, crucial safety upgrades and basic expertise enhancements to servers and screens.
Safety enhancements are crucial “to maintain up with overseas adversaries,” stated Gustafson, who added that the brand new capabilities of the Scenario Room had been up to date to the “highest” commonplace out there. Security measures in SCIFs are consistently up to date throughout the U.S. authorities, Gustafson stated.
President Joe Biden attends a ribbon reducing for the renovated White Home Scenario Room, Tuesday, September 5, 2023, within the West Wing of the White Home. Official White Home Photograph by Adam Schultz
After receiving a tour Tuesday of the brand new Scenario Room, Biden held his first intelligence briefing within the new facility the identical day.
“He liked it [and] thought it was incredible,” Gustafson stated.
The Nice Seal of the united statesis carved right into a stone sourced from a Virginia quarry, set into the wall of the newly renovated Scenario Room. Photograph courtesy of the White Home.
New stone lining the hallway of the safe suite got here from a quarry in Virginia and is carved in a single part with The Nice Seal of the U.S. The mahogany wooden panels got here from a Gaithersburg, Maryland firm that is a member of the Rainforest Alliance.
Screens inside the first convention room and all through the suite show the time for the president’s present location, “native” and different areas world wide deemed related by the Scenario Room director. On Thursday, one panel informed the time for Tehran, Iran, Kyiv, Ukraine, and Niamey, Niger.
The renovated responsibility watch station contained in the Scenario Room options capabilities of the “highest” commonplace out there, in accordance with White Home Scenario Room Director Marc Gustafson. Photograph Courtesy of the White Home.
The responsibility watch station, referred to as the “watch ground,” additionally acquired a facelift with extra space for desks. Officers from each department of the army, senior intelligence analysts, technicians, video operators and State Division aides have seats on the watch ground. They work in shifts to watch world and nationwide intelligence and infrequently cable information.
Army and intelligence personnel work in shifts to watch world and nationwide intelligence on the responsibility watch station within the newly renovated house. Photograph courtesy of the White Home.
Gustafson’s workplace sits barely elevated within the responsibility station. It is a glass field with a neat trick that he makes use of “on a regular basis.” With the press of a button the glass on his workplace frosts over, obscuring the view from anybody exterior.
