he ordered that an officer throw Ali Boumendjel, an influential Algerian attorney, from the 6th floor of the building he was held prisoner in, claiming that Boumendjel had committed suicide. France decreed that both deaths were suicides, but Aussaresses admitted both assassinations in 2000. Status of torture in the French government Aussaresses contends, in his book, that the French government insisted that the military in Algeria "liquidate the FLN as quickly as possible". Subsequently, historians debated whether or not this repression was government-backed or not. The French government has always claimed that it was not, but Aussaresses argues that the government insisted upon the harsh measures he took against Algerians - measures which included summary executions of many people, hours of torture of prisoners, and violent strike-breaking. Aussaresses was quite candid in his interview in Le Monde forty years later (May 3, 2001): Concerning the use of torture, it was tolerated, if not recommended. François Mitterrand, the Minister for Justice, had, indeed, an emissary with Massu in judge Jean Bérard, who covered for us and who had complete knowledge of what went on in the night.French: « Quant à l'utilisation de la torture, elle était tolérée, sinon recommandée. François Mitterrand, le ministre de la justice, avait, de fait, un émissaire auprès de Massu en la personne du juge Jean Bérard qui nous couvrait et qui avait une exacte connaissance de ce qui passait la nuit. » Aussaresses justified the use of torture by saying how shocked he was by the FLN's massacre at the El Halia mine. He suggested that torture was a small but necessary evil that had to be used to defeat a much larger evil of terrorism. Aussaresses also claimed that he used these methods because it was a quick way to obtain information. He also defended its use by saying that the legal system was meant to deal with a peacetime France, not a counter insurgency war that the French army was faced with in Algeria. In 2001, Aussaresses during an interview stated: The FLN were involved in a savage terrorist movement. My role in Algeria was a struggle against unbridled terrorism — blind attacks against the innocent. The conflict was not Algerians vs. French. The fight was not a political one nor was it an ideological one. That holds no interest for me. Most Algerians, as well, were not interested in political problems. They only