The Daily Background

This is so stupid for so many reasons:

McLEAN, Va. - The federal government’s most secure prison has determined that two books written by President Barack Obama contain material “potentially detrimental to national security” and rejected an inmate’s request to read them.

Ahmed Omar Abu Ali is serving a 30-year sentence at the federal supermax prison in Florence, Colo., for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate then-President George W. Bush. Last year, Abu Ali requested two books written by Obama: “Dreams from My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.”

But prison officials, citing guidance from the FBI, determined that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security.
[…]
The rejection is just one indication of the harsh conditions imposed on inmates at the supermax prison, according to Abu Ali’s lawyer, Joshua Dratel.

It does make you think, in terms of, if they’re not allowed to read these fairly innocuous– dare I say patriotic books– what aren’t they also allowed to have access to? (Obligatory plug for a former instructor: check out the Tamms Year Ten project to reform a particularly bad Supermax prison in Illinois.)

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