In the sinister propaganda videos produced by the jihadis of Islamic State, their western captives have regularly been dressed in the orange jumpsuits familiar from scenes of the US detention camp at Guantánamo Bay – before being beheaded.

The point is an obvious one: what Americans inflicted on Muslim fighters will be inflicted on Americans and Britons who fall into their hands.

The latest revelations of torture and abuse by the CIA in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks are not news to Isis, al-Qaida or other extremist Islamist groups. But they have been instantly incorporated into the narrative of “Crusader” cruelty – and may be used to justify similar methods as well as to promote recruitment.

“Read [the Senate report] my brother and stick your shoe in the mouth of those who say that the Islamic State distorts Islam,” one Isis supporter tweeted. Another, a Syrian, wrote: “Getting beheaded is 100 times more humane, more dignified than what these filthy scumbags do to Muslims.”

Hani al-Sibaei, a prominent radical Islamist scholar, commented: “American politicians consider CIA report on torture of Muslim detainees a disgrace to America! Damn you! Your entire history is a stain on the face of humanity.”

Nabil Naim a former Egyptian jihadi leader, announced that he was ready to raise a 10,000 strong force of suicide bombers to attack America. Isis itself issued no official response.

Isis explains its actions by the doctrine known as the “management of savagery” – massacres, decapitations and other atrocities as well as the ethnic cleansing of Yazidis, Kurds and Shia. “Such savagery might seem senseless,” the Middle East scholar Fawaz Gerges has commented, “but for Isis it appears to be a rational choice, intended to terrorize its enemies and to impress potential recruits.”

Social media responses to the Senate report in the Arab world reflected condemnation of both American behaviour and the complicity of Arab governments – the “near enemy” in the eyes of the new generation of transnational jihadis.

“Many silly Arabs are outraging about CIA torture reports, they forgotten their own Arab gov’ts & how they torturing them,” went one comment. “Will those who are disturbed by the CIA torture report be equally disturbed when reports show how Arab countries helped facilitate the torture?” asked an Egyptian liberal.

The fact is that torture is employed routinely across the region – the reason why the CIA used facilities in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Morocco, Saudi Arabia and Algeria – their names all redacted from the Senate document. Jihadis who have returned from Syria to Tunisia have alleged torture at an interrogation centre operated by the national police.

Egyptian jihadis who first appeared in the 1980s and went on to form the core of al-Qaida often cited the use of torture as a factor in their radicalisation.

“The treacherous Al Saud open their prisons to the CIA to torture Sunni people,” commented one Saudi dissident. Morocco’s role attracted close attention from North African commentators.

Another Syrian commented: “Arabs let me explain: yes, this kind of ‘light torture’, sleep deprivation/cold temperatures is considered a big deal in civilized countries.” Twitter user RamiAlLolah posted a picture of a smiling Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, with the caption: “Assad after reading the #CIATorture report: You guys know shit about torture!”

Majid Nawwaz of the Quilliam Foundation, which specialises in counter-radicalisation, said:”Revelations about CIA torture do make a difference by adding to grievances. These are not the sole contribution to radicalisation but they are nevertheless important as a factor, especially on the propaganda side. It doesn’t matter that Isis are far worse because part of the Islamist argument is that they don’t claim to believe in human rights. They say you guys in the west are hypocrites.”