The US federal government’s most secure prison has determined that two books written by US 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, Colorado, for joining al-Qaeda 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.
A prison spokeswoman referred questions to the FBI, where a spokeswoman was looking into the matter on Thursday evening.
The documents detailing the prison’s rejection of Obama’s books are included in court papers for a resentencing hearing scheduled later this month for Abu Ali, a US citizen.
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.
“Imagine an existence controlled by characters created by Louis [sic] Carroll, and that would approach that which Mr Abu Ali faces each day for the duration of his sentence,” Dratel wrote.
Abu Ali requested the books last August, before Obama was elected.
In a short, handwritten note on a prison complaint form, Abu Ali argues that the two rejections “violate my 1st amend. rights” — referring to the part of the US Constitution that promises free speech among other rights.
The rejections, as well as other restrictions on family visits, prompted a hunger strike by Abu Ali that has since ended, Dratel wrote.
Prison officials cite specific pages — but not specific passages — 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. It was not immediately obvious what passages might have been deemed problematic, though nearly half of the pages cited are in a chapter devoted to foreign affairs.
Abu Ali will be resentenced on July 27, following an appellate court ruling that US District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee improperly deviated from sentencing guidelines that recommended a term of life in prison.
Drug lord Jose Adolfo Macias Villamar, alias “Fito,” was Ecuador’s most-wanted fugitive before his arrest on Wednesday, more than a year after he escaped prison from where he commanded the country’s leading criminal gang. The former taxi driver turned crime boss became the prime target of law enforcement early last year after escaping from a prison in the southwestern port of Guayaquil. Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa’s government released “wanted” posters with images of his face and offered US$1 million for information leading to his capture. In a country plagued by crime, members of Fito’s gang, Los Choneros, have responded with violence, using car
The team behind the long-awaited Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile yesterday published their first images, revealing breathtaking views of star-forming regions as well as distant galaxies. More than two decades in the making, the giant US-funded telescope sits perched at the summit of Cerro Pachon in central Chile, where dark skies and dry air provide ideal conditions for observing the cosmos. One of the debut images is a composite of 678 exposures taken over just seven hours, capturing the Trifid Nebula and the Lagoon Nebula — both several thousand light-years from Earth — glowing in vivid pinks against orange-red backdrops. The new image
Canada and the EU on Monday signed a defense and security pact as the transatlantic partners seek to better confront Russia, with worries over Washington’s reliability under US President Donald Trump. The deal was announced after a summit in Brussels between Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa. “While NATO remains the cornerstone of our collective defense, this partnership will allow us to strengthen our preparedness ... to invest more and to invest smarter,” Costa told a news conference. “It opens new opportunities for companies on both sides of the
OVERHAUL: The move would likely mark the end to Voice of America, which was founded in 1942 to counter Nazi propaganda and operated in nearly 50 languages The parent agency of Voice of America (VOA) on Friday said it had issued termination notices to more than 639 more staff, completing an 85 percent decrease in personnel since March and effectively spelling the end of a broadcasting network founded to counter Nazi propaganda. US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) senior advisor Kari Lake said the staff reduction meant 1,400 positions had been eliminated as part of US President Donald Trump’s agenda to cut staffing at the agency to a statutory minimum. “Reduction in Force Termination Notices were sent to 639 employees at USAGM and Voice of America, part of a
RSS