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The Battle of the Casbah: Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Algeria, 1955-1957. By General Paul Aussaresses. New York: Enigma Books, 2002. ISBN 1-929631-12-X. 186 pages. $25.
General Paul Aussaresses' book describing his activities as an intelligence officer in Algeria during the Algerian war for liberation blew the top off the kettle when it was first published in France in 2001 as Services Speciaux, Algerie 1955-1957. The surprising aspect is that the furor and resultant legal actions appear to have been aimed less at the author and his revelations than at his publisher and the fact that the story was being published. One wonders if the inclusion of the names of many later prominent political figures such as Bourges-Maunoury, Faure, Mendes-France and Mitterand was not the basis of some of this ire.
Aussaresses, then a captain, was a professional intelligence officer and had been a founder of the national intelligence organization's striking arm, the 11th Shock Battalion. (If this sounds strange, consider the various historical military/paramilitary organizations and actions of the Central Intelligence Agency, sometimes snidely referred to as the Waffen CIA.) His account begins with his transfer to Algeria from Paris following extensive active service in Indochina.
At the time, the Algerian insurgents had commenced a massive effort to drive out the French. This was a second- or third-level insurgency complete with small-unit attacks on French forces and a concurrent terrorist war, waged with exceptional savagery against both the French settlers and the then largely politically indifferent...