“Why didn’t they just ASK if they could go on the ships and take photos????”
Because they would say no,, like good bureaucrats do. And then justify it with reasons that are actually designed to cover their reflexive refusal.
And if i was on a jury, i’d still vote not guilty even with the photos. After all, i saw Luke Sky walker blow up the death star too. And the government is in bad need of some pokes in the eye. They need to start losing some cases.
I got a great tour of the USS Missouri last year at Pearl Harbor. The retired Naval Officer who gave the tour mentioned that there were spaces in the ship that they, themselves were not permitted to enter. I asked who it was who determines and polices this and he said it was the EPA. Furthermore they are subject to unannounced spot inspections by the EPA, and anyone found in those spaces will be walked off the ship and told never to return.
In bureaucrat wisdom a little asbestos is fine for American kids to live with for months at a time, but not so much for tourists for a few minutes.