White House Situation Room

The White House Situation Room, usually just called Situation Room or " SITROOM ", is a device in the White House and the main center for encrypted communication from the President of the United States. It is comparable with the UK Cabinet Office Briefing Room ( COBR / COBRA ), the COBR not nearly as well known as the Situation Room. He is not to be confused with the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, which is also housed in the White House, however, has a different function.

Unlike the name suggests, consists of the Situation Room not only of a single room but several rooms totaling 513 square meters. It is believed that it is due to its size from three to eight chambers.

The room was set up in 1961 by President John F. Kennedy after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, after the lack of real-time information transfer for the failure was blamed.

Occupation

The room is staffed around the clock by five alternating so-called "watch teams " to monitor the national and international events. Each team generally consists of three officers, a communications assistant and a messaging service analysts. Depending on the layer, requirements, workload or events staff may vary, the aforementioned staff here is just an indication. The hand-picked members of the Watch teams are selected from a pool of about 30 people from the intelligence community and the armed forces after a detailed and thorough examination.

Trivia

The news channel CNN has named its format The Situation Room after the White House Situation Room.