The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information
The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information
The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information
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most diverse elements.” (Ageron, p. 17) Ra<strong>the</strong>r, <strong>the</strong>y were <strong>the</strong> fully rational actions <strong>of</strong> military leaders<br />
who had strong (but completely incorrect) prior beliefs fed by French misin<strong>for</strong>mation, and who<br />
believed torture to be effective at ferreting out <strong>the</strong> truth. <strong>The</strong> resulting spiral <strong>of</strong> suspicions, torture and<br />
executions shares important similarities with <strong>the</strong> events in Salem Village: once <strong>the</strong> misin<strong>for</strong>mation was<br />
accepted by <strong>the</strong> judges, <strong>the</strong> accused (whe<strong>the</strong>r witches or traitors) found <strong>the</strong>mselves subjected to a brutal<br />
calculus that weighed confession against something far worse: death, <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> accused witches; a process<br />
<strong>of</strong> dying made indefinitely long <strong>for</strong> <strong>the</strong> accused traitors. <strong>The</strong> end result was <strong>the</strong> same: torture leading to<br />
torture as <strong>the</strong> cycle continued and expanded into o<strong>the</strong>r Wilayas.<br />
Amirouche implied that Wilaya four, in particular, was ridden with traitors: here <strong>the</strong> latent<br />
generational cleavage between <strong>the</strong> FLN leadership and <strong>the</strong> students who had left Algiers during <strong>the</strong><br />
battle to join <strong>the</strong> FLN. It was feared in particular that <strong>the</strong> students were planning to take control <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><br />
Wilaya, and <strong>of</strong>fer terms to <strong>the</strong> French. (ibid.) At an inter-Wilaya meeting called by Amirouche on<br />
December 3 rd , 1958, <strong>the</strong> head <strong>of</strong> Wilaya four, Si M'Hamed, was convinced that <strong>the</strong> plot was far graver<br />
and larger than he had previously believed: upon his return to <strong>the</strong> bled, he would follow in Amirouche's<br />
footsteps, and would obtain <strong>the</strong> same results. <strong>The</strong> purge unleashed ended up liquidating <strong>the</strong> students as<br />
a group, and <strong>the</strong>n turned its fury on 'deviationists' and o<strong>the</strong>r internal enemies. But ra<strong>the</strong>r than pruning<br />
and streng<strong>the</strong>ning <strong>the</strong> FLN, <strong>the</strong> purges had <strong>the</strong> opposite effect: desertions to <strong>the</strong> French increased as it<br />
became ever more dangerous to stay in <strong>the</strong> Wilayas, and dissension in <strong>the</strong> ranks was to hand <strong>the</strong> French<br />
a major victory - <strong>the</strong> deaths <strong>of</strong> three <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> six Wilaya chiefs. On March 28 th , after his katiba had been<br />
nearly wiped out a week prior by an inexplicably <strong>for</strong>tunate French column, Amirouche was killed along<br />
with Si Haouès <strong>of</strong> Wilaya 6, most likely as <strong>the</strong> result <strong>of</strong> in<strong>for</strong>mation passed on to <strong>the</strong> French by “those<br />
<strong>of</strong> [Amirouche's] colleagues to whom Amirouche, in particular, had become an embarrassment in his<br />
ruthless cruelty and lust <strong>for</strong> power.” (Horne, p. 324) Similarly, Si M'Hamed disappeared on an<br />
operation in May – but whatever his fate, he was not captured or killed by <strong>the</strong> French. Even <strong>the</strong> deaths<br />
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se commanders did not bring <strong>the</strong> spiral <strong>of</strong> denunciations to a close, as <strong>the</strong> chaos in Wilaya four<br />
was to last until <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> 1959<br />
4.6. Weighing <strong>the</strong> Costs and Benefits<br />
<strong>The</strong> Scale <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Torture</strong> by <strong>the</strong> DOP<br />
<strong>The</strong> capture <strong>of</strong> Ben M'Hidi and Yacef, <strong>the</strong> deaths <strong>of</strong> Kamel, Mourad and Ali la Pointe, <strong>the</strong><br />
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