The images are chilling and depraved: Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib subjected to torture and sexual humiliation and, in some cases and circumstances that are not explained, death. These may be old pictures dating from 2003 and the first Abu Ghraib scandal. But they are a crippling new blow to the reputation of the US and its allies in Iraq.

They remind us of the shame of that episode. They are worse than the indelible images that so shocked us then. Furthermore, in the interim, the Pentagon has for all practical purposes tried to suppress them. The jihadi fanatics trying to trigger a clash of civilisations between Islam and the west must feel they are lucky in their enemies.