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(London) Britain's Royal Marines faced allegations of brutal bullying after a newspaper published what it called images of recruits stripped naked and subjected to violent abuse.

The News of the World Sunday said senior officials of the Ministry of Defence confirmed the authenticity of the fuzzy video, taken in May at Bickleigh Barracks near Plymouth, southwest England, home to the elite 42 Commando unit.

"This is the worst thing that I've seen happen -- that's why I filmed it -- but it's the tip of an iceberg," said the newspaper's source, described as a Royal Marine veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq.

The video -- which the News of the World said it would put up on its website http://www.notw.co.uk -- purportedly shows a non-commissioned officer in a blue surgeon's outfit leading the abuse. At one point the NCO is seen kicking one recruit unconscious.

The newspaper's source said recruits were subjected to electric shocks to their genitals, forced to crawl naked through thorn bushes, and urged to fight one another with one hand tied behind their backs.

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[ 27 November 2005: Message edited by: Hephaestion ]

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Originally posted by Tape_342:

...putatively str8 guys...

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"This is the worst thing that I've seen happen -- that's why I filmed it -- but it's the tip of an iceberg," said the newspaper's source, described as a Royal Marine veteran of Afghanistan and Iraq.

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Does anyone dare to guess at the word that appears in that report as "p*****"?

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Originally posted by skdadl:
Oh, well. That is not so bad. I wish that the media wouldn't play coy like that. It makes me imagine awful things.

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I am reminded of the scene in All the President's Men, when Woodstein goes to tell ME Ben Bradlee about a reaction quote they got from Attorney General John Mitchell:

Bernstein: He said, quote, you tell [WaPo owner] Katie Graham that if she prints that she's going to get her tittie caught in the ringer.

Bradlee: He actually said that?

Bernstein: Yeah, I think we woke him up.

Bradlee: [sigh] Ok, cut the word 'tittie' and run it.

Woodward: Why are we cutting the word?

This behaviour in no way can be traced back to the free-for all criminal torture and abuse...excuse me, I mean liberation of Iraqis, and the war has nothing to do with this brutal, antisocial, clockwork-orange-esque behaviour. It is just a few bad apples. A few sexually-predatory bad apples that just happen to have had free reign to engage in all manners of degrading sexual assault against not only Iraqi detainees, but against their own members without any repercussions. I'm sure the command structure is shocked, shocked I say, at the antics of their elite troops.

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Originally posted by Jingles:
Hmm. I blame violent video games.

This behaviour in no way can be traced back to the free-for all criminal torture and abuse...excuse me, I mean liberation of Iraqis, and the war has nothing to do with this brutal, antisocial, clockwork-orange-esque behaviour. It is just a few bad apples. A few sexually-predatory bad apples that just happen to have had free reign to engage in all manners of degrading sexual assault against not only Iraqi detainees, but against their own members without any repercussions. I'm sure the command structure is shocked, shocked I say, at the antics of their elite troops.

Who knew the Royal Marines had so much in common with the Catholic Church?

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Twice in a day I agree with ya...

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Originally posted by Tape_342:
I do believe Jingles was speaking ironically, Reason.

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