When is a picture not worth a thousand words? When it tells a different story than the one it was supposed to.

The iconic photo of the situation room during the raid on Osama's compound with the president and his advisors seemingly on the edge of their seats as they watched - so we were told - the raid unfold in real time is a lie.

A conservative conspiracy theory? A Republican sour grapes accusation? Nope. From CIA Director Leon Panetta in The Telegraph:

Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, revealed there was a 25 minute blackout during which the live feed from cameras mounted on the helmets of the US special forces was cut off.

A photograph released by the White House appeared to show the President and his aides in the situation room watching the action as it unfolded. In fact they had little knowledge of what was happening in the compound.

In an interview with PBS, Mr Panetta said: "Once those teams went into the compound I can tell you that there was a time period of almost 20 or 25 minutes where we really didn't know just exactly what was going on. And there were some very tense moments as we were waiting for information.

"We had some observation of the approach there, but we did not have direct flow of information as to the actual conduct of the operation itself as they were going through the compound."

By the way, has anyone noticed that Panetta is off the reservation? He advocated releasing the pics of Osama's dead body, he has constantly corrected administration versions of events, and has generally been a discordant voice in the whole affair.

Speculation; it could be because he feels his spooks have been slighted by the administration's portrayal of Obama as a hands on "warrior" and all the credit going to the White House and the SEALs. This wipes out many years of hard work by CIA analysts in tracking the courier across the entire expanse of Pakistan - a feat of intelligence that will go down in history.

I wonder if they actually staged that photo?