French Journalist Henri Alleg Denounces Waterboarding “Torture” He Endured During Algerian War

Just days ahead of Tuesday’s Committee vote, Pennsylvania Republican Senator Arlen Specter joined Democratic Senators Charles Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California in supporting Mukasey’s nomination. Mukasey’s confirmation had been in doubt as five of the panel’s 10 Democrats had lined up against him after he refused to state categorically that waterboarding is illegal. But Schumer and Feinstein’s support now virtually guarantees that a majority of the committee will recommend his confirmation.

Waterboarding is the practice of pouring water over the cloth-covered face of a prisoner while they are strapped down to induce the sensation of drowning. It’s been used by some of the world’s most repressive regimes: From the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia to the military dictatorships of Chile and Argentina. The French used waterboarding during theiur occupation of Algeria in the 1950s and 60s.

• Scene from the 1966 film “The Battle of Algiers.”

We now turn to a real-life survivor of the Algerian war of independence. Henri Alleg is a French journalist who was arrested by French paratroopers in Algeria in 1957. Alleg was sympathetic to Algerian independence. He was interrogated for a month, questioned under torture, and repeatedly subjected to waterboarding.

Alleg described his ordeal in an essay titled “The Question” which was published in 1958 with a preface by Jean-Paul Sartre. The book was subsequently banned in France and legalized only after the war ended in 1962. Henri Alleg, 86 year old survivor of torture by French paratroopers, joins me now on the phone from Paris, France.

• Henri Alleg. French journalist who supported Algerian independence from France. He was arrested by French paratroopers in Algeria and interrogated and subjected to waterboarding.

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