Malia Obama Paparazzi Photos -- White House Strong-Arms Agency To Squash Pics

Malia Obama went to a famous L.A. restaurant Monday night -- a restaurant regularly frequented by celebs and paparazzi -- and when the White House found out a photog took her pic, they went into DEFCON 1 to KILL the photos.

The 16-year-old went to Gjelina in Venice, CA with some friends. The photog got the pic as Malia walked out and then sent it to the AKM-GSI agency to sell. The agency posted the pic on its website for media outlets to purchase, but several hours later The First Lady's Office called AKM-GSI and asked them to please take the pics off the website and delete them from their files.

We're told Michelle Obama's people told the agency they had promises from various media outlets not to photograph the 2 girls when they were not in the presence of their father.

AKM-GSI then agreed, sending an email to the media with the subject, "URGENT SET KILL NOTICE."

The text reads, "Please delete the set of Malia Obama from your archive. The set was sent around earlier today. We cannot distribute this set."

Now here's what's interesting. Malia has been in L.A. over the last few weeks, doing an internship on Halle Berry's TV show for part of the time. Then she showed up at a famous restaurant -- Secret Service in tow -- with photogs all over the place.

So is this a case of the President and First Lady taking precautionary action, or is this a concerned famous mom and dad flexing their muscles?