The federal government’s most secure prison say two books written by President Barack Obama contain material “potentially detrimental to national security” and rejected an inmate’s request to read them, reports the Associated Press. Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, serving a 30-year term at the supermax prison in Florence, Co., for joining al-Qaida and plotting to assassinate President George W. Bush, requested Obama’s “Dreams from My Father” and “The Audacity of Hope.”
Prison officials, citing guidance from the FBI, determined that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security. Officials cited specific pages in the books that they deem objectionable. They include one page in Obama’s 1995 book, “Dreams from My Father,” and 22 separate pages in his policy-oriented 2006 book, “The Audacity of Hope.”