How good is the Taliban internal communications department?

I ask because they have issued a code of conduct for their members.

As anyone in internal communications will tell you - it's getting people to read and internalise this sort of guidance that's difficult.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/21/world/asia/21taliban.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th

From the New York Times:

The effort to change the Taliban’s image began in earnest last May when Mullah Omar disseminated his new code of conduct. The New York Times obtained a copy of the document through a Taliban spokesman. A version of the new code was authenticated last summer by NATO intelligence after a copy was seized during a raid and its contents corroborated using human intelligence, according to a senior NATO intelligence official.

The version sent to The Times is a 69-point document ranging from how to treat local people, how to treat prisoners, what to do with captured enemy equipment and when to execute captives. Much of the document deals with the Taliban chain of command and limits the decisions that field commanders can make on their own. The document exhorts insurgents to live and work in harmony with local people.

Posted via email from Rob's posterous