Once upon a time, there was a President who was widely regarded throughout the land as open, transparent, forthright and honest (though very few people were actually willing to say on the record that he walked on water).

This was regarded as a welcome change from the other guy who came before.

And it came to pass in this modern-day kingdom of Camelot that there were thousands of photographs depicting the abuse of detainees held by U.S. authorities abroad which the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit had ordered to be publicly released, and which Honest Barack‘s administration had agreed to so release (after the Bush administration’s appeal of that ruling was turned down).

Two weeks ago, after personally seeing said photographs, Allegedly Honest Barack decided to renege on the agreement entered into with the court, and ordered his administration to block the release of the photographs. That’s when Allegedly Honest Barack certified to the American people that although the photographs were too inflammatory to be publicly released, they were actually “not particularly sensational”.

Now, London’s Daily Telegraph brings the self-evident dishonesty of that declaration into sharp focus. Here’s what “not particularly sensational” means in the time of Obama:

At least one picture shows an American soldier apparently raping a female prisoner while another is said to show a male translator raping a male detainee.

Further photographs are said to depict sexual assaults on prisoners with objects including a truncheon, wire and a phosphorescent tube.

Another apparently shows a female prisoner having her clothing forcibly removed to expose her breasts.

Detail of the content emerged from Major General Antonio Taguba, the former army officer who conducted an inquiry into the Abu Ghraib jail in Iraq.

Allegations of rape and abuse were included in his 2004 report but the fact there were photographs was never revealed. He has now confirmed their existence in an interview with the Daily Telegraph.

The graphic nature of some of the images may explain the US President’s attempts to block the release of an estimated 2,000 photographs from prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan despite an earlier promise to allow them to be published.

Maj Gen Taguba, who retired in January 2007, said he supported the President’s decision, adding: “These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency.

“I am not sure what purpose their release would serve other than a legal one and the consequence would be to imperil our troops, the only protectors of our foreign policy, when we most need them, and British troops who are trying to build security in Afghanistan.

“The mere description of these pictures is horrendous enough, take my word for it.”

When it comes to presidential prevarication, there really doesn’t seem to be much difference between George Bush and Barack Obama, does there?

(Except that, for all the lying Bush did for eight years, I don’t recall him ever getting caught in such a bald-faced lie. Apart from anything else, this was a thoroughly stupid lie—obviously untrue on the face of it, and bound to be eventually exposed as a lie. After the last eight years, do we really need a president who — for all his intelligence — is capable of such stupidity?)

After Obama has described these photographs of rape and sexual abuse as “not particularly sensational”, why would anyone ever again believe anything he says?

Also remember, folks, the comparative merits of showing and telling. Telling our enemies that there are horrendous photographs depicting rape and sexual abuse of male and female prisoners does not inflame them at all. Only showing them the photographs would do that. As long as we are only describing the photographs in graphic detail, America is perfectly safe and all is well.

Which is why it was perfectly okay to release this eyewitness account of one of the acts of rape depicted in the photographs:

I saw [name of a translator] ******* a kid, his age would be about 15 to 18 years. The kid was hurting very bad and they covered all the doors with sheets. Then when I heard screaming I climbed the door because on top it wasn’t covered and I saw [name] who was wearing the military uniform, putting his **** in the little kid’s ***…. and the female soldier was taking pictures.