When did photography become illegal?
Apparently some people believe that it is illegal to photograph federal buildings. Where did this hysteria first manifest? Post 9/11 paranoia? Does a photo of a building necessarily represent a security threat?
It is not illegal to take pictures of federal buildings or any other facility from a public sidewalk. Cryptome has taken hundreds in New York City, Washington DC and elsewhere. Cryptome has asked federal guards on several occasions about taking pictures; all said it was okay, a couple said this is your property not ours. On other occasions rent-a-guards have been hostile, act as though they have something to hide about their unimportance. In 2002 rent-a-guards at a CIA-State Department communications facility in Virginia (Warrenton Training Center Site D) confiscated camera and and video chips, saying they could be recovered by contacting CIA. Follow-up requests to CIA have been ignored.
- GSA Vigilante Assaults Photographer
article at Cryptome.org
Did you know that the General Services Administration is an independent agency of the United States government? Interestingly enough, all of the following organizations also belong to that category:
- Central Intelligence Agency
- Commodity Futures Trading Commission
- United States Environmental Protection Agency
- Federal Communications Commission
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
- Federal Trade Commission
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Archives and Records Administration
- National Labor Relations Board
- National Science Foundation
- National Transportation Safety Board
- Office of Personnel Management
- Peace Corps
- Small Business Administration
- Selective Service System
- Social Security Administration
- Securities and Exchange Commission
- United States Agency for International Development
- United States International Trade Commission
- United States Postal Service
- Postal Rate Commission
- Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board
