The Taliban's Book of Rules

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16169421/site/newsweek/


• Afghanistan: The Taliban's Book of Rules
A nine-page pamphlet offers some chilling--and revealing--insights about Afghanistan's former rulers

E-MAIL CHRISTOPHER DICKEY
What do you think about all this?


Web-Exclusive Commentary
By Christopher Dickey
Newsweek
Updated: 9:08 a.m. CT Dec 12, 2006

Dec. 12, 2006 - An extraordinary little document is making the rounds among the Taliban of Afghanistan. As first reported in NEWSWEEK by Ron Moreau and Sami Yousafzai on Dec. 3, the stapled pamphlet called simply “Layeha,” or “Rule Book,” is only nine pages long. But it speaks volumes about the Taliban: their strategy, their following, their potential virtues and their persistent vices, and the full text is well worth reading.

At a moment when the Kabul government of Hamid Karzai is under increasing threat and NATO troops are engaged in ever fiercer combat, the rule book suggests what an elusive and mercenary concept loyalty is on the Afghan battlefield. Just as American power and money helped pull warlords and fighters away from the Taliban in 2001 to bring down their regime, the surviving followers of Mullah Omar are now hoping they have the momentum to win back defectors to their side. But the leadership clearly worries that Taliban recruits will start freelancing: the rule book cautions against ransoming captives without approval, forbids selling equipment, discourages changing units without permission.

Terror and intimidation is part of the strategy, with foreign aid organizations, modern schools and teachers a special target. They are supposed to be warned, and if they don’t listen, eliminated. (In Kunar province, a village elder and four women—two of them teachers—were murdered on Friday night.)

But there is more to it than that. Many rules explicitly forbid killing those who work with the “infidel” Americans and Europeans if they’re willing to change sides, and one rule even prohibits killing infidels themselves if they come over to the ranks of the mujahideen or holy warriors..........

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1. This wouldn't be a problem if we hadn't invaded Iraq.

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