Taliban Spy Network

Coach is Right ^ | Jim Emerson, staff writer

[darkwing104]

“Hence it is only the enlightened ruler and the wise general who will use the highest intelligence of the army for purposes of spying and thereby they achieve great results” - Sun Tzu

Like espionage networks from the Vietnam War, in Afghanistan, anyone local could be a spy, making it difficult to identify the “friendlies” from the bad guys. Taliban leaders use this historical model to gather intelligence to plan for suicide attacks and decide where to place IED to hamper supply routes. While we can’t be sure, it would be safe to assume that this operation is being guided by advisors from the Iranian or Pakistani Intelligence organizations.

The Taliban developed a robust intelligence gathering network in Afghanistan as a necessity. With its infrastructure destroyed and unable to defeat allied forces on the battlefield they now resort to espionage to keep track of and attack friendly forces.

The Taliban have managed to infiltrate Afghan security forces and other government organizations. They have used tribal mistrust to create its intelligence network. Though not as sophisticated as western intelligence services, they make up for it in numbers and succeed by putting people on top of mountains with binoculars.

Counter Intelligence

Aware of the allies’ ability to exploit all means of electronic communications the terrorists have curtailed their use of radios and cell phones in order not to alert NATO forces that an attack is being conducted. The Taliban depend heavily on human gathered intelligence and to some extent computer social networks. The commander often use email to report their combat reports and provide propaganda for Al Jazeera.

The biggest asset to the Taliban’s intelligence gathering and use of counter-intelligence operation was handed to them by accused leaker Bradley Manning and WikiLeaks.

[darkwing104]

Intelligence is information. He who controls the information controls the people.

[null and void]

Is he referring to Afghanis in Afghanistan designating targets in Afghanistan, or Afghan (and other muslim) refugees designating targets here?

[darkwing104]

All of the above

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks darkwing104.

With its infrastructure destroyed and unable to defeat allied forces on the battlefield they now resort to espionage to keep track of and attack friendly forces.