GALLERY: Guarding the 'Perimeter': Outside the CIA's Secret JFK Archive
GALLERY: Guarding the 'Perimeter': Outside the CIA's Secret JFK Archive
My photographic investigation drew security attention
In taking photos of the building at the center of Jefferson Morley’s exclusive report, the CIA’s secret JFK archive, I quickly attracted the attention of a four-man security crew in a Humvee. They followed me after I took a picture of the front entrance. A guy in a black "Security" t-shirt was looking right at my camera when I snapped a pic.
You can see him, face blurred, in Photo #6.
Sure enough, soon after I parked in the next door facility (a similar office block but empty and for lease), along came these guys (average age, approximately 27) in cammy fatigues with flak vests and lots of guns and ammo. One was holding a machine gun of some sort. They gave me the "nice, easy-goin' guy" routine, telling me they just wanted to find out what I was doing, since it was a "federal facility" 'n' all.
They might have been part of the Federal Protective Service, which guards U.S. government facilities, but they did not identify themselves. The FPS has been in the news because the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 has called for further exploiting FPS’s protective mission for political ends. “Project 2025 proposes to deploy FPS to quash mass protests while making the agency directly responsive to political decision makers,” according to New York University’s Brennan Center.
Fortunately, they didn’t quash me. But they did want to know my business.
I told the guards I was a reporter doing a story on the building, which is believed might still hold documents relevant to the assassination of President Kennedy. I said I wanted a pic that was better than Google Maps street view. The good cop who did all the talking, just nodded and said that was "cool," informing me that I wouldn't be allowed to "breach the perimeter.” I wasn’t planning to do that, given the heavy black metal fence with barbed wire on top that surrounded the place at a substantial radius.
As they left me alone in the parking lot, I asked if I could take their picture. A "bad cop" said no as he shook his head brusquely. They got back in their Humvee and drove off.
The gallery shows the CIA building from all angles. As Morley’s story makes clear, the building once housed an archive of JFK assassination records. Is the JFK archive still located there? A CIA spokesperson did not respond to that question.
Outstanding work by Chad here. Journalism is not surfing the internet and surfing the internet is not journalism. Journalism is going out and seeing things for your self, interviewing people, and taking pictures some people would rather not have taken.
Anti-war leftist and Mike B.
Maybe the best thing that could have been said is, "did you know CIA stood by and let the murder of JFK happen. You alright with that?"
And I'll give you a heads up here, far too many cops don't give one shit about your Constitutional Rights.
Far too many answer with " I'm just doing my job!"" The SS said the same thing or maybe I watch too many movies!