Rating: 
Summary: Very important
Review: As others have noted, this book has a frank discussion of how one can use terror to fight terror. I'm afraid however, that some reviewers, like the "insane book lover" miss the point entirely: the French were kicked out of Algeria after much bloodshed. They, like the US today, refused to understand the source of hatred directed at them, and so there was no way for them to fight it. Again, for all those reviewers crowing over how this book instructs us how to fight radical Islam, remember this: the French won the battle, but lost the war.
Rating: 
Summary: An Interesting Memoir, But Limited In Scope
Review: I originally purchased the book with the hopes of learning more about the French occupation of Algeria. I was not looking to read the memoir of an assassin and torturer. Although the book did not provide much in the way of history, it did provoke much thought about terrorism, colonization, and to what lengths a nation is willing to go in order to crush terrorism...or rebellion (depending on one's definition). During the 1950's, numerous North African nations were granted independence from colonial rule, but France maintained a hard-line in regards to Algeria. After Tunisia was granted independence, nationalists throughout Algeria began to attack French citizens, properties, and government troops in the hopes of securing their own freedom. General Aussaresses was given the task of stopping the attacks on French citizens living in Algeria, and subsequently destroy the nationalists as an entity. The majority of the book discusses how Aussaresses developed a program of executions, assassinations, and torture in order to stop the FLN. He discusses how his secret mission was hidden from the majority of the French populous and even from some major government officials. Then, the book abruptly ends, with out giving the reader a real conclusion. There is no real explanation as to what occurred following the departure of Aussaresses, or what happened to Algeria as a nation. Certainly an epilogue would have been appreciated. Nevertheless, the book did provide food for thought. How does a nation fight terrorism? It would seem that Aussaresses would argue that we fight terror with terror. Kidnapping and summary executions solve the dilemma, Aussaresses would say. But with the use of these tactics, a different dilemma arises. Who is the terrorist when both parties act so similarly?
Rating: 
Summary: Requires some honest critical thinking
Review: I think it's far too easy to simply tag this individual as a "Fascist" and dismiss the topic. Unless of course you also are willing to call Alan Dershowitz a Fascist. The question of if or when torture should be applied is pretty difficult. This book and others are very good tools to cause you to think your way through the process. Is the answer absolute? Probably not, and that's part of the problem. How would you design a system that has any controls is it is situationally dependent? If you had eh ability to prevent 9-11 by torture being applied to a person would you do it? Maybe an extreme example, but not unrealistic.
Rating:
Summary: Requires some honest critical thinking
Review: I think it's far too easy to simply tag this individual as a "Fascist" and dismiss the topic. Unless of course you also are willing to call Alan Dershowitz a Fascist. The question of if or when torture should be applied is pretty difficult. This book and others are very good tools to cause you to think your way through the process. Is the answer absolute? Probably not, and that's part of the problem. How would you design a system that has any controls is it is situationally dependent? If you had eh ability to prevent 9-11 by torture being applied to a person would you do it? Maybe an extreme example, but not unrealistic.
Rating: 
Summary: Should be titled: "Diary of a fascist"
Review: Only in "The Rape of Nanking" have I read a tale of such remorseless killing. The author personally tortured, hung, and shot numerous people, and the disturbing thing about it was how casual he was in doing so. Considering that he fought the Nazis in WWII with the French resistance, it's surprising how much he seems to have become like them (and how much the French occupation of Algeria looked like the German occupation of France). As for the book as a whole, it's well written and provides an important perspective on the conflict given his key role in it. It also provides a little bit of historic background about how the French experience in Vietnam, the rise of Arab nationalism etc. helped fuel the conflict. But all in all it's a pretty distasteful book (and that's from a person who's read lots of war chronicles).
Rating:
Summary: How to crush an insurgency the Nazi Prison Guard Way
Review: The author served as the lead military intelligence officer for the French Army unit fighting in Algiers in 1957. The matter-of-fact, unapologetic tone of the atrocities he committed to win the battle struck me as one of the most chilling accounts I've ever read. By his own admission, he and the organization he led killed 3000 and tortured 25000 during the Battle of Algiers.
Those who tout this book as a tactical manual for winning the war on terror clearly overlook several major problems. First, the FLN, while it had tens of thousands of supporters in Algiers, had nowhere close to 25000 operatives in Algiers. That means that for every terrorist captured, the French tortured a handful of fence-sitters, passive supporters, or non-participants. Secondly, though they were poorly treated, the Arabs were, in fact, French citizens and Algeria was deemed an integral part of France -- just as Michigan with its large Arab population is part of the United States. The actions of the French Army almost completely alienated the very population they were trying to pacify and include in their empire. I would hope that if Al Qaeda established cells in Detroit, we would not employ the same tactics there that the French did in Algiers. Thirdly, while the author may have the psychological make-up of a Nazi Prison guard, most soldiers do not. Many of them struggled to come to grips with their actions for the rest of their lives. It's hard enough to deal with killing without also becoming a torturer.
Most importantly, the French lost the war. While you would never guess it by the outcome, French society initially almost unanimously supported retention of Algeria in the empire-- even some of the Communists. Torture completely fractured support for the war in France and around the world. Those same torturers, confronted with the fact that they might lose the war after leaping into a moral abyss, mutinied not once but twice. DeGaulle ultimately decided he had to get the French Army out of Algeria before it destroyed itself and all of France.
That said, the book provides valuable insight into the mindset of one particular school of counterinsurgency doctrine -- a failed school. This isn't to suggest that terrorists should be coddled; ultimately, we will have to kill most. As the fallout from Abu Gharab suggests, however, this isn't the way.
Kevin Clark
MAJ, US Army
US Mission Iraq
Rating:
Summary: A Good Solider's Account
Review: This book is an important contribution to the English language literature on the French-Algerian War. However, the book's importance goes beyond adding to the historical record of France's occupation of Algeria. The subject of terrorism and how to deal with it became immeasurably more important for Americans after 9/11. This book provides a glimpse of one possible way to deal with terrorism - the fight fire with fire way. Aussaressess recounts how he helped set up and execute an anti-terrorist operation in Algiers. He unapologetically tells how he used nightly raids, torture, imprisonment and summary executions to break the back of the FLN in Algeirs during 1955-57 (The movie "Battle of Algiers" is a riveting account of this struggle).
In short, this is a good solider's account of the war. As valuable as this perspective is (and it is very valuable), it is narrow and demands some responses. First, the book fails to provide a context for the war (For context, I recommend reading Alistair Horne's "A Savage War of Peace"). Aussaressess begins with the massacre at Phillipeville but there were atrocities on all sides. This war was an [mass] of violence and hatred. Second, there is a number of moral responses I have to Aussaressess's statements in the book. The one I find most appalling is that Aussaressess believes that he and his intelligence officers were restoring "law and order". I guess as an attorney I find this claim most alarming. I might be more accurate to say that Aussaressess was restoring a kind of order but it was hardly lawful. Suspects were picked up in nightly raids, tortured and summarily executed if they were believed to be terrorists. In most thinkers idea of law, there is the concept of equity: fairness and accountability. Our system has rights and procedures to preserve some accuracy in outcomes and prevent the abuse of power. Aussaressess claims he never executed an innocent person. This is just too incredible to accept. Even in our system, innocent people are wrongly convicted and, police and prosecutors allow their judgments to be skewed by their egos or trying to preserve face. One can only imagine how many innocents were picked up and tortured and killed - which in the end probably caused more problems for the French in Algeria. As effective as Aussaressess was in eradicating a network of terrorists in Algeirs in 1957, France still lost Algeria. The Algerians did not lose heart because of the methods Aussressess employed. Moreover, French public opinion concerning the war turned negative upon revelations of torture.
Rating:
Summary: A primer for things to come
Review: This book poses many questions. What does a nation do to fight an enemy that will indiscriminately kill innocent civilians (including women and children)? How do intelligence forces get the information they need to prevent further attacks? Do the ends justify the means? General Aussaresses attempts to answer these questions in this book and I think, does so very convincingly. It's important to understand the context of the situation. French Algeria was a colony populated by a number of ethnicities. Many muslims were pro-French and wanted Algeria to remain a French department. In addition, you had a significant French colonial population, the Pieds Noirs (the black feet) that wanted Algeria to remain French. Additionally, there were groups that wanted independence - those willing to work within a political framework, and those willing to engage in terrorism. Aussaresses and his methods (as described in the book) were successful in subduing the rebels. France voluntarily left Algeria. De Gualle made the decision to give Algeria its independence in 1962-- the French were not forced out. In fact, many elements of the French army mutinied against De Gualle as a result of his decision -- but that's a different story. This book describes the means by which information was gathered and applied in order to combat a foe that was willing to bomb civilians, engage in what we now call terrorist acts, and could conceal themselves within the population. The methods included torture and summary executions. But these were not the only methods employed. What Aussaresses established was a process of intelligence gathering and the application of military and police resources to act on that information. He used torture in interrogations in order to gather information. Aussaresses used the information gathered from these interrogations to eliminate operatives, foil terrorist plots, and systematically dismantle the FLN. These methods succeeded. I think there are tough lessons to be learned from this book. How are our intelligence and military forces fighting the war on terror gathering their information to prevent further attacks? Are America and its allies prepared to do what is necessary to protect our populations? Do the ends justify the means?
Rating:
Summary: Model For The Current Struggle Against Muslim Radicals
Review: This could have been a stunning book, written by a major player in the Battle of Algiers. Instead, it is a poorly written memoir with little literary value. Perhaps the translator is at fault or the author, Paul Aussaressess, is just a hack writer. But the writing is choppy, desultory, in a word, bad. Having said all that, I must say The Battle of the Casbah is an object lesson for the fight against modern Muslim terrorists. Why? BECAUSE THE FRENCH WON THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS! This books shows how they won that battle. To a world fifty years removed from that conflict the idea of torture and summary executions and forgetting civil rights may seem harsh. But when confronted with stone cold killer terrorists who blow up restaurants and kill women and children the remedy MUST be extra-legal or civilization is the loser. I recommend this book to anyone involved on the front lines against those Mulim extremists who seek the deaths of Christians and the fall of the West. There is only one way we can win this war and the model is right here: The Battle of the Casbah.
Rating:
Summary: This Frenchman was no sissy
Review: This is a great read. The secret French military leader who directed counter terrorism actions against Arab Muslims in French Algeria has written a very frank memoir of what he did to win the battle of Algiers.
Aussaresses fought fire with fire and used terror to break the Arab Muslim terrorist network in French Algeria. For those in the West who have the defeastist attitude that Westerners can never defeat Third World terrorists operating out of their own communities/bases, read this book.
Yeah, the French military used torture to defeat the terrorists. This Frenchman knew how to deal with Arab terrorists who raped French farmers, murdered French children, planted bombs in discos and on trains (same thing happening now in Israel and in Spain, Russia), Aussaressess infiltrated the terrorist networks, found the people responsable and had them tortured (if they had information) and executed. He didn't bother with courts of justice or lose a lot of sleep that his methods didn't comform to liberal ideals of intellectuals back in Paris.
Watch the movie Battle of Algiers for the Arab perspective on this event, Aussaresses is not featured in the movie, though his commanding officer Gen Massau is featured and respected in that movie, then read this book.
After, 9/11/01 and the horrible events in Israel, Russian school, Madrid, I have no problem unleasing men like Aussaresses to take care of the Arab Muslim terrorists. What are we supposed to do with these terrorist? Try to work them into our free, tolerant Western societies?
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