Farhi Saeed bin Mohammed, an Algerian national who was captured in Pakistan and turned over to the U.S. military after fleeing from Afghanistan, was ordered released from the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay by a U.S. District Court judge yesterday, according to the human rights group CagePrisoners. Judge Gladys Kessler’s written opinion is still classified. I’ll report back once a declassified opinion becomes available.

Mohammed is the 31st Guantanamo detainee to win his petition for habeas corpus, which challenges the government’s right to continue to hold him without charge. According to David Remes, a lawyer who represents about a dozen Guantanamo detainees and closely tracks these cases, federal courts have ruled that the government can continue to detain eight of the 39 prisoners whose habeas cases have been heard.

Jeffrey Kaye at Truthout has a good piece today on the suicide — or murder? — of Yemeni Guantanamo Bay prisoner Mohammad Ahmed Abdullah Saleh al Hanashi in June. It’s a powerful reminder of why human rights advocates, as well as U.S. military leaders, think it’s important to close that prison soon.

I admit I overlooked this case, because it was initially reported as a suicide. But it’s no longer so clear that that’s the case.  now looks like that may not have been the case. Guantanamo spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Brook DeWalt told According to journalist Naomi Wolf, “the status of the investigation into Mr al-Hanashi’s death … is now a Naval criminal investigation – meaning that he is no longer considered a suicide but a victim of a murder or a negligent homicide.”

Guantanamo spokesman Lt. Cmdr Brook DeWalt, however, who I spoke to after initially writing this post, denies that interpretation. According to DeWalt, “any death is investigated by NCIS [Naval Criminal Investigative Service] on navy bases. Whether it be natural causes, whether it be suicide, criminal, across the board.”

Wolf’s “news” has just gotten a little fuzzier. What is clear, though, is that five months after al-Hanashi’s death, we still don’t know what happened to him.

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Senate Democratic leaders have amended their newly released health reform bill to include a contentious provision allowing some workers to receive cash vouchers toward exchange coverage in lieu of enrolling in employer-based plans. Here’s an explanation from a statement released moments ago by the amendment’s sponsor, Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.):

Under the Senate legislation as it is currently written, Americans with employer-provided coverage, whose income is below 400 percent of the federal poverty level and whose premiums are between 8 and 9.8 percent of their total income will be exempt from having to purchase health coverage but will not be able to access the exchange to qualify for government assistance to purchase insurance.  The agreed to amendment will make it possible for these individuals to convert their tax-free employer health subsidies into vouchers that they can use to choose a health insurance plan in the new health insurance exchanges.

Critics contend that the proposal will cause a flood of young, healthy workers to flee employer-sponsored plans, hiking rates for the older, sicker folks who remained. But a number of Senate Democrats had recently joined Wyden in urging adoption of the so-called “free-choice” amendment.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the change will cover an additional 1 million people, Wyden says.

Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), a breast-cancer survivor, has been busy on the news shows this week, attacking the new guideline that women seek routine mammograms later in life. Last night, she was at it again, telling MSNBC’s Chris Matthews that it’s “totally inappropriate” for a panel without any sitting cancer specialists to make such recommendations.

It’s a ridiculous set of recommendations. It’s causing mass confusion among women, because we have been trained to know that, when we’re 40 years old, we should get a mammogram routinely.

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Why has MSNBC embedded one of its top on-air talents with Sarah Palin’s book tour? That’s a good question, but I thought Norah O’Donnell’s grilling of a young Palin fan was a fair use of the network’s time. O’Donnell asked Jackie (no last name given), who was wearing a T-shirt criticizing the bailouts, if she knew that Palin had supported them. Jackie refused to believe it.

“The reason I ask you,” said O’Donnell, “is that I think there’s some confusion about Sarah Palin’s policies.”

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Don’t miss this mammoth USA Today investigation into retired generals and admirals receiving heaps of Pentagon cash for occasional “mentoring” work to their previous service branches — usually while they’re receiving not only their duly-earned pensions, but also generous military contractor dollars. Tom Ricks, who thinks the piece ought to contend for a Pulitzer, puts it into perspective:

My test on this is easy: Would George C. Marshall have accepted such payments? I doubt it. (Remember, he declined to write a memoir that would have made him wealthy because he thought it would have been improper to get into the failings of some of his comrades.)

TPMDC’s Brian Beutler reports that Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) has announced he plans to vote to send the Senate health care bill to the Senate floor. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has scheduled the vote for Saturday night.

“This weekend, I will vote for the motion to proceed to bring that debate onto the Senate floor,” Nelson says. “The Senate should start trying to fix a health care system that costs too much and delivers too little for Nebraskans.”

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Republicans on Capitol Hill were sure quick to go after the new federal guidelines recommending that women should seek routine mammograms beginning at age 50 instead of 40. “This is how rationing begins,” Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday on Capitol Hill. “This is when you start getting a bureaucrat between you and your physician. This is what we have warned about.”

Blackburn was joined by GOP Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (Wash.), Sue Myrick (N.C.), Candice Miller (Mich.), Michele Bachmann (Minn.) and Jean Schmidt (Ohio).

Funny, though, that none of the participants has signed on in support of legislation to ensure that all women aged 40 and up have access to routine mammograms.

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I’m all set to see a D.C. premiere of this film; Ben Smith has the trailer (after the jump).

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In a letter released today, the Senate Ethics Committee admonished Sen. Roland Burris (D-Ill.) for “actions and statements reflecting unfavorably upon the Senate” in connection to the senator’s actions during his appointment to the upper chamber last year.

The Committee found that you should have known that you were providing incorrect, inconsistent, misleading or incomplete information to the public, the Senate and those  conducting legitimate inquiries into your appointment to the Sentate. [...]

The Committee has found that your actions and statements reflected unfavorably on the Senate and issues this Public Letter of Qualified Admonition.

Translation: We know you lied under oath; here’s your slap on the wrist.

Is it any wonder that watchdog groups don’t trust the system of Congress policing itself?