Paul Aussaresses | |
|---|---|
 Général Paul Aussaresses | |
| Born | 7 November 1918 Saint-Paul-Cap-de-Joux, France |
| Died | 3 December 2013 (aged 95) Sainte-Marie-aux-Mines, France |
| Allegiance |  France |
| Service | French Army |
| Years of service | 1941–1975 |
| Rank | Brigadier General |
| Commands | 11e Choc 1er RCP |
| Battles / wars | World War II First Indochina War Algerian War |
Paul Aussaresses (French: [pɔl osaʁɛs]; 7 November 1918 – 3 December 2013) was a French Army general, who fought during World War II, the First Indochina War and Algerian War. His actions during the Algerian War—and later defense of those actions—caused considerable controversy.[1]
Aussaresses joined the Free French Forces in North Africa during the Second World War. In 1947 he was given command of the 11th Shock Battalion, a commando unit that was part of France's former external intelligence agency, the External Documentation and Counter-Espionage Service, the SDECE (replaced by the Direction Générale de la Sécurité Extérieure (DGSE)).
Aussaresses provoked controversy in 2000 when, in an interview with the French newspaper Le Monde, he admitted and defended the use of torture during the Algerian war. He repeated the defense in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes, further arguing that torture ought to be used in the fight against Al-Qaeda, and again defended his use of torture during the Algerian War in a 2001 book; The Battle of the Casbah. In the aftermath of the controversy, he was stripped of his rank, the right to wear his army uniform and his Légion d'Honneur. A 2003 documentary revealed that, after moving to Brazil in 1973, Aussaresses had advised South American dictators on the use of torture widely used against leftist opponents to the military regimes in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Paraguay. Aussaresses also admitted to advising the CIA for the Americans' Vietnam era Phoenix Program, which utilized torture.
Aussaresses, recognizable by his eye patch, lost his left eye due to a botched cataract operation.[2]
- ^ "BBC News - Algeria torture: French general Paul Aussaresses dies". BBC News. 4 December 2013. Retrieved 2013-12-04.
- ^ French war crimes apologist from the Algerian independence war dies, by Thomas Adamson (Associated Press); in the Calgary Herald; published December 4, 2013; retrieved May 29, 2015 (via archive.org)