"ment 

 I understand that the technique of electrical torture was developed in the 1930s in Frnch Indo China and the practice of ""Tiger Cages"" on the island of Palo Condor by the French. The usual contention is that the French developed knowledge of torture by being the victims of it. This is difficut to believe- many of the Foreign Legion immediately after the War would have been Nazi fugitives and the French establishment full of collaborators like Mitterand. ""Expertise"" in torture is generally gained by giving rather than receiving and I suggest that this was the case in Indo-China too.   "