SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
French troops seal off the casbah in Algiers in 1956 during the Algerian war of independence. (Photograph: AP)
'No More Torture,' Says France. Not So the United States
It will be hard for Washington to keep holding itself up to be the world champion of human rights when its torturers are hard at work inflicting unspeakable punishments on suspects.
Oct 07, 2018
'This is La Main Rouge,' said the gruff voice on our home telephone in Geneva, Switzerland.. 'Stop your activities on behalf of the FLN or we will kill you.' The mysterious caller hung up.
I was petrified. La Main Rouge was killing supporters of free Algeria across Europe.
This was 1959 where I was studying at the International School of Geneva. The war to liberate Algeria from 130 years of French colonial was at its bloodiest and most intense.
As an idealistic student, I was outraged by the brutality of this struggle in which up to 1.5 million Algerians were killed by the French and by fellow Algerians. I organized demonstrations calling for free Algeria, penned articles and carried messages for the Algerian underground (Front de Liberation National, or FLN)'s branch in Paris.
The death threat was the first of many I would receive over my life, along with much other heavy intimidation and offers of bribes to alter my journalistic positions. But the bloody Algerian War of Independence, that ran from 1954-1962, still holds particular resonance for me even though I've covered 14 wars since then. The horrors of Algeria's massacres and torture have stayed with me all these years.
La Main Rouge (Red Hand), we later learned, was a false flag operation mounted by French intelligence (SDECE) to kill or frighten off supporters of the Algerian cause, notably pro-Algerian leftwing intellectuals, and arms suppliers.
That's why I was elated to see France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, officially admit that France had indeed conducted systemic torture in Algeria that he called 'a crime against humanity.' Previous French governments had denied the crimes in Algeria and censored reports and books about it.
Torture, 'disappearing' and judicial executions would no longer be sanctioned in France, even in extreme cases. Macron called France's repression in Algeria 'a crime against humanity.'
The record of the war is ghastly. Tens of thousands of Algerian suspects were rounded up at night, thrown into prisons, and tortured - many to death - using electric generators attached to their genitals or lips with steel clips. Intense beatings and use of masked informers were common. Many FLN suspects were sent to the guillotine.
The superb film 'Battle of Algiers' recounts ferocious efforts by French elite paratroopers and security forces to crush the FLN network. `We far outdid the Nazi SS and Gestapo,' boasted one particularly sadistic French general.
As a result of the Algerian War, torture spread to France's metropolitan security services and even regular police. But this is always what happens when torture is used. It spreads like a virus.
Back in 1995, then President Jacques Chirac admitted that French police, not Germans, had rounded up 75,000 French Jews and sent them to German concentration camps. France's right was outraged.
Now, France's right is denouncing President Macron for finally telling the truth and opening France's secret archives
Which raises the question of torture by US occupation forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and of similar crimes by its satraps Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and by Israel. Under President Donald Trump, the US is going in precisely the opposite direction as France. Trump and his cohorts have lauded the use and efficacy of torture and called for its wider and more intense use in America's modern colonial wars. The CIA's new chief led one part of the torture program in Southeast Asia.
France is now purging itself of the crimes against humanity committed during the Algerian War. Nations, like people, need to occasionally cleanse their spirit of foul deeds and crimes. But not so the United States where the White House and Congress have become cheerleaders for torture.
It will be hard for Washington to keep holding itself up to be the world champion of human rights when its torturers are hard at work inflicting unspeakable punishments on suspects. Let's recall that the Bush-Cheney administration massively increased the use of torture to try to prove a fake link between Saddam's Iraq and 9/11. America disgraced itself and never could manufacture the 'evidence.'
America and France are sister democracies. President Macron has shown Washington how to deal with the crime of torture. We should listen.
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
© 2023 Eric Margolis
Eric Margolis
Eric Margolis is a columnist, author and a veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East. Margolis was featured in a special appearance on Britain's Sky News TV as "the man who got it right" in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq. His latest book is "American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World."
'This is La Main Rouge,' said the gruff voice on our home telephone in Geneva, Switzerland.. 'Stop your activities on behalf of the FLN or we will kill you.' The mysterious caller hung up.
I was petrified. La Main Rouge was killing supporters of free Algeria across Europe.
This was 1959 where I was studying at the International School of Geneva. The war to liberate Algeria from 130 years of French colonial was at its bloodiest and most intense.
As an idealistic student, I was outraged by the brutality of this struggle in which up to 1.5 million Algerians were killed by the French and by fellow Algerians. I organized demonstrations calling for free Algeria, penned articles and carried messages for the Algerian underground (Front de Liberation National, or FLN)'s branch in Paris.
The death threat was the first of many I would receive over my life, along with much other heavy intimidation and offers of bribes to alter my journalistic positions. But the bloody Algerian War of Independence, that ran from 1954-1962, still holds particular resonance for me even though I've covered 14 wars since then. The horrors of Algeria's massacres and torture have stayed with me all these years.
La Main Rouge (Red Hand), we later learned, was a false flag operation mounted by French intelligence (SDECE) to kill or frighten off supporters of the Algerian cause, notably pro-Algerian leftwing intellectuals, and arms suppliers.
That's why I was elated to see France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, officially admit that France had indeed conducted systemic torture in Algeria that he called 'a crime against humanity.' Previous French governments had denied the crimes in Algeria and censored reports and books about it.
Torture, 'disappearing' and judicial executions would no longer be sanctioned in France, even in extreme cases. Macron called France's repression in Algeria 'a crime against humanity.'
The record of the war is ghastly. Tens of thousands of Algerian suspects were rounded up at night, thrown into prisons, and tortured - many to death - using electric generators attached to their genitals or lips with steel clips. Intense beatings and use of masked informers were common. Many FLN suspects were sent to the guillotine.
The superb film 'Battle of Algiers' recounts ferocious efforts by French elite paratroopers and security forces to crush the FLN network. `We far outdid the Nazi SS and Gestapo,' boasted one particularly sadistic French general.
As a result of the Algerian War, torture spread to France's metropolitan security services and even regular police. But this is always what happens when torture is used. It spreads like a virus.
Back in 1995, then President Jacques Chirac admitted that French police, not Germans, had rounded up 75,000 French Jews and sent them to German concentration camps. France's right was outraged.
Now, France's right is denouncing President Macron for finally telling the truth and opening France's secret archives
Which raises the question of torture by US occupation forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and of similar crimes by its satraps Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and by Israel. Under President Donald Trump, the US is going in precisely the opposite direction as France. Trump and his cohorts have lauded the use and efficacy of torture and called for its wider and more intense use in America's modern colonial wars. The CIA's new chief led one part of the torture program in Southeast Asia.
France is now purging itself of the crimes against humanity committed during the Algerian War. Nations, like people, need to occasionally cleanse their spirit of foul deeds and crimes. But not so the United States where the White House and Congress have become cheerleaders for torture.
It will be hard for Washington to keep holding itself up to be the world champion of human rights when its torturers are hard at work inflicting unspeakable punishments on suspects. Let's recall that the Bush-Cheney administration massively increased the use of torture to try to prove a fake link between Saddam's Iraq and 9/11. America disgraced itself and never could manufacture the 'evidence.'
America and France are sister democracies. President Macron has shown Washington how to deal with the crime of torture. We should listen.
Eric Margolis
Eric Margolis is a columnist, author and a veteran of many conflicts in the Middle East. Margolis was featured in a special appearance on Britain's Sky News TV as "the man who got it right" in his predictions about the dangerous risks and entanglements the US would face in Iraq. His latest book is "American Raj: Liberation or Domination?: Resolving the Conflict Between the West and the Muslim World."
'This is La Main Rouge,' said the gruff voice on our home telephone in Geneva, Switzerland.. 'Stop your activities on behalf of the FLN or we will kill you.' The mysterious caller hung up.
I was petrified. La Main Rouge was killing supporters of free Algeria across Europe.
This was 1959 where I was studying at the International School of Geneva. The war to liberate Algeria from 130 years of French colonial was at its bloodiest and most intense.
As an idealistic student, I was outraged by the brutality of this struggle in which up to 1.5 million Algerians were killed by the French and by fellow Algerians. I organized demonstrations calling for free Algeria, penned articles and carried messages for the Algerian underground (Front de Liberation National, or FLN)'s branch in Paris.
The death threat was the first of many I would receive over my life, along with much other heavy intimidation and offers of bribes to alter my journalistic positions. But the bloody Algerian War of Independence, that ran from 1954-1962, still holds particular resonance for me even though I've covered 14 wars since then. The horrors of Algeria's massacres and torture have stayed with me all these years.
La Main Rouge (Red Hand), we later learned, was a false flag operation mounted by French intelligence (SDECE) to kill or frighten off supporters of the Algerian cause, notably pro-Algerian leftwing intellectuals, and arms suppliers.
That's why I was elated to see France's new president, Emmanuel Macron, officially admit that France had indeed conducted systemic torture in Algeria that he called 'a crime against humanity.' Previous French governments had denied the crimes in Algeria and censored reports and books about it.
Torture, 'disappearing' and judicial executions would no longer be sanctioned in France, even in extreme cases. Macron called France's repression in Algeria 'a crime against humanity.'
The record of the war is ghastly. Tens of thousands of Algerian suspects were rounded up at night, thrown into prisons, and tortured - many to death - using electric generators attached to their genitals or lips with steel clips. Intense beatings and use of masked informers were common. Many FLN suspects were sent to the guillotine.
The superb film 'Battle of Algiers' recounts ferocious efforts by French elite paratroopers and security forces to crush the FLN network. `We far outdid the Nazi SS and Gestapo,' boasted one particularly sadistic French general.
As a result of the Algerian War, torture spread to France's metropolitan security services and even regular police. But this is always what happens when torture is used. It spreads like a virus.
Back in 1995, then President Jacques Chirac admitted that French police, not Germans, had rounded up 75,000 French Jews and sent them to German concentration camps. France's right was outraged.
Now, France's right is denouncing President Macron for finally telling the truth and opening France's secret archives
Which raises the question of torture by US occupation forces in Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and of similar crimes by its satraps Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and by Israel. Under President Donald Trump, the US is going in precisely the opposite direction as France. Trump and his cohorts have lauded the use and efficacy of torture and called for its wider and more intense use in America's modern colonial wars. The CIA's new chief led one part of the torture program in Southeast Asia.
France is now purging itself of the crimes against humanity committed during the Algerian War. Nations, like people, need to occasionally cleanse their spirit of foul deeds and crimes. But not so the United States where the White House and Congress have become cheerleaders for torture.
It will be hard for Washington to keep holding itself up to be the world champion of human rights when its torturers are hard at work inflicting unspeakable punishments on suspects. Let's recall that the Bush-Cheney administration massively increased the use of torture to try to prove a fake link between Saddam's Iraq and 9/11. America disgraced itself and never could manufacture the 'evidence.'
America and France are sister democracies. President Macron has shown Washington how to deal with the crime of torture. We should listen.
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.