The settlement dismisses one of the detainees from the lawsuiit -- the one who had insisted on calling John Ashcroft and other officials as witnesses under oath.

The Government may want to downplay the significance of the settlement, but listien to what the defense lawyers had to say:

Lawyers who represent both the Egyptian, Ehab Elmaghraby, who used to run a restaurant near Times Square, and the second plaintiff, a Pakistani who is still pursuing the lawsuit, described the outcome as significant.

"This is a substantial settlement and shows for the first time that the government can be held accountable for the abuses that have occurred in Abu Ghraib, Guantánamo Bay and in prisons right here in the United States," said one of the lawyers, Alexander A. Reinert of Koob & Magoolaghan.

....The lawsuit accuses Mr. Ashcroft and the F.B.I. director, Robert S. Mueller III, of personally conspiring to violate the rights of Muslim immigrant detainees on the basis of their race, religion and national origin, and names a score of other defendants, including Bureau of Prison officials and guards at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. A 2003 report by the Justice Department's inspector general found widespread abuse of the noncitizen detainees at the Brooklyn center after 9/11, and in recent months, 10 of the center's guards and supervisors have been disciplined.

As for the torture,

Mr. Elmaghraby, who spent nearly a year in detention, and the Pakistani man, Javaid Iqbal, held for nine months, charged that while shackled they were kicked and punched until they bled. Their lawsuit said they were cursed as terrorists and subjected to multiple unnecessary body-cavity searches, including one in which correction officers inserted a flashlight into Mr. Elmaghraby's rectum, making him bleed.

In a telephone interview from his home in Alexandria, Egypt, Mr. Elmaghraby, 38, said he had reluctantly decided to settle because he is ill, in debt and about to have surgery for a thyroid ailment aggravated by his treatment in the detention center.

The Government hasn't exactly denied the allegations:

The government had argued that the lawsuits should be dismissed without testimony because the extraordinary circumstances of the terror attacks justified extraordinary measures to confine noncitizens who fell under suspicion, and because top officials need governmental immunity to combat future threats to national security without fear of being sued.

The Inspector General backs up the detainees' claims.

The inspector general's report said that little effort was made to distinguish between legitimate terrorism suspects and people picked up by chance, and that clearances took months, not days, because they were a low priority. Among the abuses described in the report -- many of them caught on prison videotape -- were beatings, sexual humiliations and illegal recording of lawyer-client conversations.(my emphasis)

Another telling factor is that many of the guards were disciplined:

She [Traci L. Billingsley, a spokeswoman for the Federal Bureau of Prisons] would not identify the 10 employees disciplined, but said that two had been fired and two demoted, and that the others had received suspensions ranging from 2 to 30 days. She listed the offenses as "lack of candor, unprofessional conduct, misuse of supervisory authority, conduct unbecoming, inattention to duty, failure to exercise supervisory responsibilities, excessive use of force, and physical and/or verbal abuse."

I think this is the first settlement we've seen, but it won't be the last. I can just envision a 2008 campaign commercial showing photos or videos of the prisoners' abuse, with a soundtrack over it of Bush's voice saying "We do not torture."

What better way to show he is a liar? The U.S. has engaged in torture in U.S. prisons, at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, Bagram and undoubtedly other facilities overseas. Their ghost air prisoners, like Maher Arar, also have been tortured. Do you think Ramzi Binalshibh and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed get to have picnics in the afternoon while interrogated in a prison located in a country that endorses the use of torture?

President Bush has turned us into a torturing country. G-d help those Americans who get caught by the Iraqis, Egyptians, Saudis or Afghans. It will be payback time. I think the Bush Administration will continue to pay big dollars to keep secret the details of those claiming torture. The more the world hears about it, the more our troops will be in harm's way if captured.

[Graphic created exclusively for TalkLeft by CL.]