This latest report, alas, sticks to the idea of the UK as a global power with a unique contribution to make, if only in “soft power”. Well, our soft power benefited no end from the successful London Olympics, but the fallout from Abu Ghraib and the compensation paid to former inmates of Guantánamo have to be set against that.

Yemeni national Fahd Ghazy has been detained at Guantanamo since he was 17. Now 30, Ghazy has been cleared for release not once, but twice, first by the Bush administration and again by the Obama administration.

Shimkus, who also served as commanding officer of the U.S. medical ship Comfort, said the United States must not only focus on its military might, but also on its humanitarian power, by providing health care, infrastructure and other aid to people who need it.

Last year, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia proposed an unorthodox way to return Guantánamo Bay prisoners to a chaotic country like Yemen without fear that they would disappear and join a terrorist group.