Nerve Center: Inside the White House Situation Room

The White House Situation Room is arguably the most important facility in the most important building in the world. As the president's intelligence and alert center, it provides vital communication and crisis management capabilities to the chief executive and his advisers. It can also be "an island of calm," as a top adviser for Vice President Al Gore once described it. So little is known about the Situation Room that, until the publication of Nerve Center, the American public's knowledge of it …