WASHINGTON (AP) — “Good job tonight,” President Barack Obama told his Defense chief as he arrived for his annual State of the Union message.

Unknown to a global television audience watching the speech moments later, a bold hostage rescue operation had played out half a world away with an elite Navy SEAL team’s rescue of two hostages in Somalia, one of them an American. It was the same SEAL team that killed al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, a U.S. official said Wednesday.

Publicly, Obama did not tip his hand during his speech, though microphones picked up his congratulation to Defense Secretary Leon Panetta as he entered the House chamber Tuesday night.

Unknown to those watching the speech, Obama had learned shortly before that the operation to rescue American aid worker Jessica Buchanan (pictured) and another hostage had been successful. And, immediately after the speech, Obama returned to the White House to inform Buchanan’s father that she was safe and “on her way home,” according to a White House statement.

It was a dramatic bookend to the pomp and ceremony of one of Washington’s most elaborate rituals — the State of the Union. The president did not mention the operation during his address to Congress and the nation, though he did refer to another successful military operation — the May 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy SEAL Team 6.