at ease. is it true?
dress him.
chin up, it's all over. nothing can happen to you now, you'll see. can you stand up?
let him go.
here, put them on.
we're trying to help you. we're going to the casbah. dressed like this, they won't be able to recognize you. understand? we're going to see the place, then you'll be free .  and under our protection .
go on, give him the cap.
don't be an idiot, lagloy!
3rd regiment! attention  droite .  droite!
the result is that in the last two months, they have reached an average of 4.2 assaults per day, including aggression against individuals, and the explosions. of course, the conditions of the problem are as usual: first, the adversary; second, the method to destroy him .  there are 80,000 arabs in the casbah. are they all against us? we know they are not. in reality, it is only a small minority that dominates with terror and violence. this minority is our adversary and we must isolate and destroy it .
draw it down there too .
he is an adversary who shifts his position above and below the surface with highly commendable revolutionary methods and original tactics. .  he is an anonymous and unrecognizable enemy who mingles with thousands of others who resemble him. we find him everywhere: in the alleys of the casbah; in the streets of the european city, and in working places.
go ahead, martin.
here is some film taken by the police. the cameras were hidden at the casbah exits. they thought these films might be useful, and in fact they are useful in demonstrating the usefulness of certain methods. or, at least, their inadequacy.
i chose these films because they were shot in the hours preceding some recent terroristic assaults. and so, among all these arabs, men and women, there are the ones responsible. but which ones are they? how can we recognize them? controlling documents is ridiculous: one who has everything in order is most likely to be the terrorist.
note the intuition of the cameraman. he realized that in that box, there had to be something of interest, and he paused to focus it.
maybe the bomb was hidden right there, in a double bottom. who knows? we'll never know.
that's enough, martin .
we must start again from scratch. the only information that we have concerns the structure of the organization. and we shall begin from that .
it is a pyramid-like organization divided into a series of sectors. at the top of the pyramid is their general staff.
the military commander responsible for the executive body finds the right man and nominates him to responsibility for a sector: number one. number one in his turn, chooses another two: number two and number three .  and so they form the first triangle.
now number two and number three choose, in their turn, two men each .  number four and five, and so on .
the reason for this geometry is so that every militant will know only three members in the entire organization: his commander who has chosen him, and the two members that he himself has chosen .  contacts take place only by written instructions .  that is why we do not know our adversaries: because, in practice, they do not even know each other.
to know them means to eliminate them. consequently, the military aspect is secondary to the police method. i know we are not fond of this word, but it is the only word that indicates exactly the type of work that we must perform. we must make the necessary investigations in order to proceed from one vertex to another in the entire pyramid. the reason for this work is information. the method is interrogation. and interrogation becomes a method when conducted in a manner so as to always obtain a result, or rather, an answer. in practice, demonstrating a false humanitarianism only leads to the ridiculous and to impotence. i am certain that all the units will understand and react accordingly. however, success does not depend solely on us. we need to have the casbah at our disposal. we must sift through it .  and interrogate everyone. and here is where we find ourselves hindered by a conspiracy of laws and regulations that continue to be operative, as if algiers were a holiday resort and not a battleground. we have requested a carte blanche. but it is very difficult to obtain. therefore, it is necessary to find an excuse to legitimize our intervention, and make it possible. it is necessary to create it ourselves -- this excuse. unless our adversaries will think of it themselves, which seems to be what they are doing.
no one is leaving, eh?
rats in a trap, we hope .
without a doubt.
a name?
champagne .  all right?
nothing. absolutely nothing. we are still weighing the situation.
look around. i've put everything at your disposal. go take a look with your own eyes.
no. it has failed in its objective.
insurrection.
and you believe the nlf?
the un is far away, dear sir. it is easier to make oneself heard with bombs. if i were in their place, i would use bombs.
it is an inevitable stage in revolutionary war; from terrorism, one passes to insurrection .  as from open guerrilla warfare one passes to real war, the latter being the determining factor .
exactly.
in indochina, they won.
it depends on you.
no! we have enough fighters. you have only to write, and well, if possible.
political support. sometimes it's there, sometimes not .  sometimes, it's not enough. what were they saying in paris yesterday?
will you kindly explain to me why all the sartres are always born on the other side?
not really, but he's even less appealing as an enemy.
good .  good work .  now we can all go to sleep.
the end of the strike doesn't change anything. the directives remain the same. give your men the usual shifts. we must remain in the casbah: twenty-four hours a day!
we must cling to it, and work fast!
have any of you ever had a tapeworm?
the tapeworm is a worm that can grow to infinity. there are thousands of segments. you can destroy all of them; but as long as the head remains, it reproduces itself immediately. it is the same thing with the nlf. the head is the general staff, four persons. until we are able to eliminate them, we must always start again from the beginning.
i found these in the police archives. they are old shots, but i made some close-ups. ramel .  si mourad .  kader .  ali la pointe. we must print a thousand copies and distribute them to the men.
that's enough, gentlemen. it's late, and we all have a lot of work .
yes, it's over .  before it becomes self-defeating.
you should address that question to the minister's spokesman. i'm not the one who made those statements .  on my part, i will say that i had the opportunity to admire the moral strength, intelligence, and unwavering idealism demonstrated by ben m'hidi. for these reasons, although remembering the danger he represented, i do not hesitate to pay homage to his memory.
the successes obtained are the results of those methods. one presupposes the other and vice versa.
i understand. what's your question?
let's try to be precise then. the word "torture" does not appear in our orders. we have always spoken of interrogation as the only valid method in a police operation directed against unknown enemies. as for the nlf, they request that their members, in the event of capture, should maintain silence for twenty-four hours, and then, they may talk. thus, the organization has already had the time necessary to render useless any information furnished .  what type of interrogation should we choose? .  the one the courts use for a crime of homicide which drags on for months?
and those who explode bombs in public places, do they perhaps respect the law? when you asked that question to ben m'hidi, remember what he said? no, gentlemen, believe me, it is a vicious circle. and we could discuss the problem for hours without reaching any conclusions. because the problem does not lie here. the problem is: the nlf wants us to leave algeria and we want to remain. now, it seems to me that, despite varying shades of opinion, you all agree that we must remain. when the rebellion first began, there were not even shades of opinion. all the newspapers, even the left-wing ones wanted the rebellion suppressed. and we were sent here for this very reason. and we are neither madmen nor sadists, gentlemen. those who call us fascists today, forget the contribution that many of us made to the resistance. those who call us nazis, do not know that among us there are survivors of dachau and buchenwald. we are soldiers and our only duty is to win. therefore, to be precise, i would now like to ask you a question: should france remain in algeria? if you answer "yes," then you must accept all the necessary consequences.
now is not the time for heroes. give me the megaphone.
ramel .  si mourad .  use your heads. if you go on like this, i wouldn't want to be in your place when you are captured .  because you will be captured in the end, and you know it too. surrender! if you do it immediately, i promise that you will not be harmed and you will have a fair trial. can you hear me?
mathieu. colonel mathieu.
i don't trust you either. first stand up so i can see you, and keep your hands still and well in sight.
how can i give you this statement?
okay, i'll make the statement in writing .
yes .  but let me first see you.
here it is .  you know that when i give my word, i keep it .
you go .
which one of you is fathia?
is it you?
go up the stairs, and tell kader that if they don't surrender, we'll blow up everything .  do you understand?
try to convince him, if you care about your house .  wait a minute .  do you want to get killed?
kader, look. fathia is coming .  i wouldn't shoot .
go on .
return to where the others are. prepare the plastic. it should be placed on the ceiling of the stairway under the hiding place .  a long fuse rolled up .  take cover .  keep shooting while you are working. quickly! clear the house .  bring them outside, then check the rooms again .  hurry up!
if you had let me blow you up, you would have disappointed me .
for many months, i've had your photo on my desk together with a dozen or so reports on you .  and naturally, i am under the illusion that i know you somewhat. you never seemed the type, kader, inclined to performing useless actions.
of course i am.
no. let's just say that you've given me the satisfaction to have guessed correctly. but from the technical point of view, it isn't possible to speak of advantages. by now the game is over. the nlf has been defeated.
what is she saying?
everything ready?
he hasn't answered?
i thought so. it was obvious.
ali .  ali la pointe .  you're going to be blown up. let the others come out, at least the child. we'll let him off with reformatory school .  why do you want to make him die?
let's go .
is this one still here? .  take him away.
ali! ali la pointe! i am giving you another thirty seconds. what do you hope to gain? you've lost anyway. thirty seconds, ali, starting now.
yes, i believe there won't be any more talk of the nlf for some time.
bah, for that matter, algeria isn't the only country in the world .