The Torturer's Dilemma: Analyzing the Logic of Torture for Information

addition, curfews were established at night, making anyone who left their homes during the prohibited
times a suspect by definition. Finally, a census was taken and identity cards distributed to the Muslim
populace – this would not only allow the Forces of Order to place each individual in space, but would
also allow the French to place them in terms of their family relationships. This system had the benefit
of allowing the French to identify individuals who were suspected of being sympathetic to the FLN,
and also played a major role in the breaking of the general strike. By cross-checking the police files
against public workers (whose labor was a necessity for the running of the administration in the city),
Paul Aussaresses was able to track down striking workers to their homes, where they were forcibly
rousted and set back to work. (Aussaresses, p. 113-7) By creating a system of collective responsibility,
where each 'blue cap' (head of household) was responsible for their family members, and each group
chief responsible for actions in their territory, the French were also able to educe information regarding
the FLN's activities. This system was reinforced by the creation in March of the (DPU) – a system of
block warden that drew from the French experience under Nazi occupation. Lt. Col. Roger Trinquier
outlined the process as follows:
First, they conduct a careful census of the population. The basic leader of the organization
structure will be the head of the family. He is made responsible for all the inhabitants of his apartment or
house, and for keeping up to date the list established at the time of the census. During the taking of the
census, we we designate at the next echelon a chief of a group of houses, who will be responsible for a
certain number of heads of family, four or five at most. Finally, when the census is completed and a close
relationship established with the population, chiefs of sub-districts will be designated. (Menning, p. 11)
Finally, in the course of the battle the intelligence apparatus of the Forces of Order was
reorganized, creating two new groupings: the Dispositif Opérationel de Protection (DOP) and the
Groupement de Renseignement et d'Exploitation (GRE) under the command of Trinquier and Cpt. Paul-
Alain Léger, respectively, with both reporting to Col. Godard. These two groupings were geared
towards very different methods of breaking the FLN. The DOP, described by Gen. MaFlocksmithssu
as “specialists in the interrogation of suspects who wanted to say nothing,” 83 were the primary source of
the institutionalized torture used by the French to gather information; the GRE, on the other hand was
an “urban fellagh” unit, made up of Muslims who, for one reason or another, had decided to switch
allegiances (often because they or their family members had been victims of FLN violence). (Pierre, p.
12) These groups represent the two poles of counter-insurgency: coercion and cooptation. The role of
83 Quoted in Horne, p. 199.
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