Request Denied for Inmate to Read President Obama's Books

[kayakjohnny]

An inmate's request to read two books written by President Obama has been denied. He's being held at the federal government's most secure prison in Florence, Colorado.

The two books are "Dreams From My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope." Both are national best sellers. So why was his request denied? Prison officials say the books contain material "potentially detrimental to national security."

Officials say they consulted the FBI. That's how it was determined that passages in both books contain information that could damage national security.




(Just found this while looking for something else.... how bizarre though)



http://www.kktv.com/home/headlines/50475462.html

[TornadoTN]

1. I've read both - so does that mean I've read something extremely damaging to national security?

I don't get it. The books are both very good, but nothing in them as far as I can remember could be construed as dangerous. This is just bizarre.

[anigbrowl]

2. I think the fact that the guy has expressed deep interest in assassinating a president is your clue

It's not so much that the books themselves are dangerous to national security, but that they feel letting this guy read them would feed his obsessive tendencies. I can't say that this bothers me all that much since he's in such a high-security prison and so forth, but then again I know little about him beyond what's reported here. Perhaps he's considered too psychologically unstable to be worth accomodating. Or maybe the governor of the prison is just a dick.

[kayakjohnny]

3. Did you read another story about him?

How did you get that info from this?

[anigbrowl]

4. Yes, and stupidly I forgot to post any link to it - sorry

Here you go: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jul/10/barack-obama-books-blocked-prison

[kayakjohnny]

5. Thanks.... amazing the story has more depth overseas than here.

Would've been nice for the CO story to throw that in.


Thank you.

[anigbrowl]

6. Well the original story is from a TV station

they want you to watch the news, not read it. It just happens the first link i saw on google News was the Guardian story (as opposed to a US newspaper).