Stephen,
The French went all the way down the slippery slope to hell. They started out using torture for interrogation in for-real TTB situations when time really was critical and torture was the fastest means of getting the necessary information.
But it didn’t stop there. Torture began to be used more and more frequently, by less and less skilled personnel, and eventually became a means of political coercion and deterrence.
This eventually resulted in widespread political revulsion at home and quiet, seething rage among the Algerian population generally.
You should read Horne’s book in particular.
I completely agree with Bowden that torture MUST remain illegal, to keep its use rare, and I mean really, really rare. WMD rare.
Use of torture by anyone except career intelligence personnel must always be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
