Journalists Detained Attempting to Video NSA Building where Snowden Worked

It kind of is, considering modern times. The concept of a "secret" government facility is not an unknown thing anymore. Everybody in the area, and possibly anyone interested in such things, knows the building is a government building. People may not know what goes on in there but it's a known government building. Shooing people away from taking pictures of the entrance doesn't really do anything other than annoy people. Unless they are chasing down every person who might have taken a picture and seizing the film then it is a pointless exercise. Chances are you can get all the info you need from Google Maps, especially if the street view was done to the area.

It's like the humorous attempts of the government to keep Groom Lake a secret. I lived in Vegas for a time and it seemed obvious that everyone knew for years something government was going on out there. From the unmarked white planes that left the airport, the special gate at the airport that only certain people could use that had guards that refused to answer any questions, the spot overlooking Groom Lake itself that was open to the public for years that allowed you to see everything, the photographs of nuclear mushroom clouds in the distance with the Strip in the foreground (people even had parties based around the bombing schedules!), and the modern method of using Google Maps to look at the area to see the runways and bomb craters.

My favorite example is the old movies where characters believed you were a spy if you happened to know that the CIA was headquartered in Langley, VA. Come on, everybody knows that.

Shooing people away from taking pictures of a nondescript entrance to a nondescript building is just a show of force and authority.

Unless I'm mistaken there is a law, FISA. It even uses warrants with judicial review, and FISA itself has been publically known for awhile, so it's hardly some fait accompli. The people have bought in, whether on purpose or not.

So, people aren't complaining that this is illegal, per se, they're complaining that there shouldn't be that law at all. Didn't you watch the Daily Show clip from the other night?

P.S. When are people going to stop calling those with a view not 100% aligned with their own "apologists" and acknowledge that there might even be different conclusions that reasonable people can reach on a topic?