You've got to love this story for its through-the-looking-glass quality. A super-secure federal prison ruled that two books written by President Obama contain information "potentially detrimental to national security" and rejected an inmate's request to read them.

According to the Associated Press, 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 asked to read 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.

In court documents related to his resentencing, prison officials flag specific pages — but not specific passages — deemed objectionable, the AP said. They include one page in Obama's 1995 book, Dreams from My Father, and 22 pages in his policy-oriented 2006 book, The Audacity of Hope.

I can picture the talk show headline already: Obama #1 on Terrorist Summer Reading List!

Update: Friday, a prison spokesman said that several months after the refusal, Abu Ali was given access to the books.