Taliban Chapter Five Episode Four

The Structure of the Taliban

            The Taliban is organized hierarchically from the supreme leader, Mullah Omar, to the foot soldiers. At the top, the Supreme Leadership, in conjunction with the Shura Council, gives guidance.  The cadre comprises dedicated mid- to senior-level operatives.  Foot soldiers are the rank and file of the Taliban. Finally, mercenaries are fair-weathered Taliban whose devotion to the ideology is tenuous and who serve for lack of better employment opportunities.

            Rings of Support

            The Taliban’s structure is hierarchical, from the Supreme Shura, through the foot soldiers, to the pool of mercenaries. But support levels can also be viewed as concentric rings. As with other insurgent and terrorist groups, such as the defunct German Red Army Faction, the Taliban have expanding rings of progressively weakened support.  There is a nucleus of hardened fighters and key decision makers at the Taliban’s core. The rings beyond this nucleus are increasingly less senior, though still important. 

            The ring beyond the inner nucleus is that of the active fighters. This nucleus is composed of the most dedicated and hardened, and usually veteran, support. Moving centrifugally, there is a second ring of active key cadre who serve as leaders and trainers. They, too, are veteran fighters but do not have the high-leadership position of the first-ring cadre.

            Beyond this ring is a third ring of active, non-combatants. They are active in the group's political, fundraising, and information activities.  They sometimes conduct intelligence and surveillance activities, and provide safe haven, shelter, financial contributions, medical and transit assistance. They are particularly instrumental in madrassas, where they recruit and groom future foot soldiers and leaders.

            The fourth ring comprises passive supporters and sympathizers. They may not be aware of their precise relation to the terrorist group. Sympathizers can be useful for political activities, fundraising, and intelligence gathering, and other non-violent activities.

 

            The Committees

            Along with the four regional commands, the Afghan Taliban have 10 functional committees that address specific issues. Some of the members of the committees are also members of the Quetta Shura.  The committees are: Ulema Council, or Religious Council; Finance; Political Affairs; Culture and Information; Military Council; Prisoners and Refugees; Education; Recruitment; Repatriation; and Interior Affairs.  Figure 8 shows the committees and their functions.

            Funding

            In addition to trading in commodities, trafficking in narcotics, and running extortion rackets, the Taliban operate the informal money transfer system commonly known as hawala. In this system, money is transferred between two parties informally. There is little paperwork kept. These formal and informal value transfers enable the Taliban to sustain the organization.

            According to the Afghanistan Centre for Research and Policy Studies director Haroun Mir, there is a vast network of charities that solicit funds for the Taliban.  Much funding comes through rich donors in the petrol-exporting Gulf states. The funds are flowing through ghost charities. “Nobody has an idea where this money goes as it is being used by extremist groups to purchase weapons or recruit suicide bombers."

            Intelligence, Security functions, and Interrogation

            Intelligence plays a vital role in the Taliban’s operations. The Taliban cannot match the military capabilities of the Coalition Forces, so they try to erode the will of the enemy through unconventional tactics. Without strong intelligence, the Taliban would not be able to commit effective suicide bombings, nor could they infiltrate the Afghan military, intelligence, and police effectively. Without effective intelligence, the “green-on-blue” attacks, Afghan soldiers turning their weapons on fellow soldiers and Western soldiers, would be very difficult.

            The Taliban’s offensive intelligence operations rely on human intelligence. These operations include pre-attack surveillance. They spread disinformation about Coalition Forces, gather intelligence-related data for use in green-on-blue attacks, monitor villagers' behavior, conduct surveillance of places and persons of interest, and engage in a wide variety of intelligence operations.

            The Taliban have experience in collection activity. During their rule, they had developed a quasi-totalitarian security apparatus to cement their Sharia-based theocracy.  Today, the Taliban has personnel who exclusively focus on intelligence and counterintelligence. They are deployed at the regional and provincial levels to facilitate the flow of information and to run informant networks. At least one Western official has stated that the Afghan Taliban have a de facto head of intelligence, although the identity of this individual remains unclear.

            Well-dressed Taliban, often young men, perform pre-operational surveillance. They photograph areas with digital cameras, obtain GPS coordinates, and watch people and places. Operatives will spend many hours observing who walks into buildings connected to intelligence or military services.  Some of the operators bring an array of sophisticated tracking devices and webcams, and are careful not to bring weapons.  In Kabul, Kandahar, and Mazar-e-Sharif, the Taliban also reconnoiter cities from motor vehicles.  There are also countermeasures in cases where they are apprehended.  Files on Taliban computers are disguised under filenames such as “poetry” or “jokes.” 

            The Taliban are skilled at counterintelligence. They are capable at unmasking penetrations or double agents who are cooperating with Coalition Forces because the Taliban have extensive knowledge of the leading families, tribal elders, and widows in the Pashtun areas of Afghanistan. As in former communist states, they channel much of their limited resources towards spying.  This fits into the strategy of terror.  Taliban intelligence targets include Afghan government forces, Coalition Forces, military personnel, non-combatant, and foreign non-combatants.       

            The Taliban's mind is well-suited to intelligence, particularly counterintelligence. The mentality of the Taliban is one of suspicion and hostility to nonconformity. Its view holds that lying is as acceptable and sometimes required in defense of Islam.  The Taliban have a broad license to extract information through even the most grim interrogation techniques.  Taliban suspected of collaborating with Coalition Forces can be executed without appeal or pity, and their severed heads could be exposed on Taliban-run media.  Taliban mullahs justify the torturous interrogation by references in the Koran.