These tortures bring a poor return; the Germans themselves ended by realizing this in 1944; torture costs human lives but does not save them.

Arrests are made at random. Every Arab can be “questioned” at will. The majority of the tortured say nothing because they have nothing to say unless, to avoid torture, they agree to bear false witness or confess to a crime they have not committed. As for those who do have something to say, we know very well that they do not talk. All of them or nearly all of them. Neither Audin, nor Alleg, nor Guerraudj unclenched their teeth. On this point the torturers of El-Biar are better informed than we. One of them said after Alleg's first session of questioning: “All the same, he has gained a night to give his friends time to get away.” And one of the officers commented, a few days later: “For ten years, fifteen years, they all have had the same idea, if taken they must not talk; and there is nothing we can do about it.”

Perhaps he was only talking about the Communists, but do we believe that the partisans of the ALN [the military wing of the FLN in Algeria] are of a different metal? These tortures bring a poor return; the Germans themselves ended by realizing this in 1944; torture costs human lives but does not save them.

In spite of that, the point is not altogether badly taken; it, at any rate, throws light on the function of torture: the question, that secret or semi-secret institution, is indissolubly allied to the secrecy of the resistance and the opposition.

Take ten men. Confine them in isolation from the other. Inquire about certain things. Compare all ten responses. If 9 out of 10 match then you can high confidence that they were telling the truth.

Call me a bad person here.

Prr, I’ve come to this post late, first reading it today. I will admit I’m not entirely certain what issue you are attempting to raise.

My understanding – I’m no expert in the field – is that whatever interrogation techniques were used during wars up to WW2 were found unreliable, but were supplanted by other techniques which might damage the interrogated less while providing more reliable information.

If your interest is about the French-Algerian war (OK, choose your own descriptor) – why else would you be raising Sartre’s specific condemnations? – then approximation of time makes German findings valid.

If your are more interested in the value of torture in itself, I would suggest that while torture is still one technique used by various national governments, it is not a rewarding technique as an intel tool.

I think most folks these days see psychological manipulation as standard techniques for information withdrawal. I also think the concept terrifies most of them. The movie “Manchurian Candidate”, from decades ago, might still be the best known demonstration of psychwar techniques. It scared the shit out of an entire generation.

Cheers,
Brian G