The Ministry Of Defence has described these events captured on film last May as "a bit of fun that got out of hand".

Where have we heard that before? Were they "just letting off steam" as Rush Limbaugh would say?

The Royal Marines in this footage were stripped naked and forced to beat each other as part of an "initiation ritual". The top left picture reveals that ALL the troops are made to take part in this appalling activity, and it's not just two guys having a bit of fun. All are naked except for one man who is dressed in a surgeon's scrubs and another who is wearing a schoolgirl uniform.

The bottom left and right Pictures show what happens as one of the men is kicked hard in the face by "the Surgeon" and is apparently knocked unconscious.

In the 1980s a number of soldiers claimed they had been abused during initiation ceremonies. One 20-year-old man said his genitals were burned, and he was indecently assaulted with a broomstick.

New rules banning such ceremonies were introduced but they have continued.

A Court Marshall in February of this year further revealed some of the humiliating "rituals" that the troops are subjected to. A "Japping" was described whereby a soldier is tied to an ironing bored and has ball bearings fired at him from a gun. The victim involved in this case was also alleged to have been sodomized with a broom handle. According to the London Guardian, Timothy Lyons, of the 29 Commando Regiment, who admitted taking part in the ritual, said it was seen as "fun" and an accepted part of military life.

Another ritual is said to be called "babooning" where new soldiers are beaten severely on the backside until their bottoms become as red as those of Baboons.

It has also been claimed that in another ritual for mounted regiment recruits, soldiers are stripped naked and covered with food which a horse then eats off their bodies.

Since the early nineties their have been a number of reports of severe bullying at British Army Barracks. Most Notably at Deepcut in Surrey where four recruits died, all under mysterious circumstances between 1995 and 2002. There have been 23 deaths of recruits at Catterick in Yorkshire since 1994, where a similar video of bullying emerged earlier in the year.

Most Notably it has been regiments from these barracks that have faced serious allegations, some proven, of mistreatment of Iraqi prisoners. The Most famous case hit the headlines when the Daily Mirror published photographs of the alleged abuse. The Government had a field day when it turned out that the photos were fake. However they later admitted that the actual incident HAD occurred and the photos were a reconstruction of REAL events.

An independent inquiry by the adult learning inspectorate earlier this year found that recruits to the British army are still subjected to a culture of bullying and racism despite repeated promises by senior officers to root it out.

It is no surprise that when the soldiers get to Iraq, they initiate the same kind of ritual abuse on Iraqi prisoners. They have become so tuned into it, it is an everyday part of their lives. Furthermore, ritual abuse and torture is now the norm in military circles, not just among the troops, but all the way through the command structure..

Last Month Alex Jones interviewed Janis Karpinski, the former General who commanded troops at Abu Ghraib Prison in Iraq. Karpinski's career was ruined in the torture scandal, and she is now determined to reveal that the orders for torture and abuse at Abu Ghraib came all the way from the top. Karpinski revealed that the incidents were not isolated but were "the result of conflicting orders and confused standards extending from the military commanders in Iraq all the way to the summit of civilian leadership in Washington."

A recent PBS documentary highlighted the case of Brig. Gen. Rick Baccus, a former Commander at Guantanamo Bay, who was fired for refusing to torture detainees.

IPS News reported recently that human rights organizations are deeply concerned about dozens of secret gulag detention centers that are operating completely without oversight and hold an undetermined amount of prisoners.

The Washington Post reported that the government had set up secret gulag compounds throughout Eastern Europe to house prisoners without trial or legal representation, largely something we already knew.

Specially designated torture planes transport nameless victims of the faux 'war on terror' between different third world dictatorships for their security services to work the cattle prod magic on poor bewildered goat herders and shoemakers.

And now torture seems to be becoming ingrained in everyday life, not just in military circles but in life in general. Popular TV shows, 24, Threat Matrix and the British drama Spooks have all recently featured plots where the "good guys", our intelligence services, torture detainees.

Our Nightly news shows are debating whether or not we should torture children of suspected Al Qaeda members.

And of Course the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, just loves torture.

Scott McClellan tells us that the Bush administration is unequivocally against torture under any circumstances and yet it is Bush and his handler Dick Cheney publicly blocking the legislation that would outlaw torture.