Taliban

The Taliban (or Taleban) is an Islamic fundamentalist movement that stated it wanted to "to set up the world's most pure Islamic state" when it effectively ruled over 90% of Afghanistan from 1996 until 2001.

The Taliban is currently engaged in a protracted guerilla war against NATO forces within Afghanistan.

Background
The Taliban, "Persian Taleban ('Students'), also spelled Taleban, ultraconservative political and religious faction that emerged in Afghanistan in the mid 1990s following the withdrawal of Soviet troops, the collapse of Afghanistan's communist regime, and the subsequent breakdown in civil order. The faction took its name from its membership, which consisted largely of students trained in madrasahs (Islamic religious schools)," according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 

"The Taliban emerged as the strongest faction of the Muslim Afghan mujahedeen rebels to seize Kabul in 1996. While they created some stability after nearly two decades of conflict, their tough interpretation of Islamic law has attracted widespread criticism," CNN reported in 2001.

"Since 1996, the Taliban have given asylum to Osama bin Laden, prime suspect in the U.S. attacks. Now the ruling council of clerics have asked him to leave the country.

"The United Nations does not recognize the Taliban, which controls 95 percent of the country. Their main opposition is the Northern Alliance, who are currently battling for control of strategically important districts in the north," according to CNN. 

Related SourceWatch Resources

 * Jundullah
 * Operation Enduring Freedom
 * opium economy in Afghanistan
 * Pipelineistan
 * September 11, 2001
 * terrorism
 * terrorist
 * The Other War: Afghanistan
 * war on terrorism

Profiles

 * Taliban and Taliban insurgency in the Wikipedia.
 * Group Profile: Taliban, MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base.

1996-2000

 * Anita Pratap, "Who are the Taliban of Afghanistan?" CNN, October 5, 1996.
 * "Taleban in Texas for talks on gas pipeline," BBC, December 4, 1997.
 * Musa M. Maroofi, "The Afghan Taliban: Like It or Not, It Occupies Two-Thirds of Afghanistan and Shows No Sign of Weakening," Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, April 1998.
 * "World: Analysis: Afghanistan: 20 years of bloodshed," BBC, April 26, 1998.
 * Namahashri Tavana, Patrick Cronin, and Jon Alterman, "The Taliban and Afghanistan: Implications for Regional Security and Options for International Action," United States Institute of Peace, November 1998.
 * Ali A. Jalali and Lester W. Grau, "Whither the Taliban?" The Cyber-Caravan (as "Taliban - a Model for 'Islamicising' Central Asia?"), March 9, 1999. Posted by Federation of American Scientists (FAS).
 * Ahmed Rashid, "The Taliban: Exporting Extremism," Foreign Affairs (IndianEmbassy.org), November/December 1999.
 * Kawun Kakar, "An Introduction of the Taliban," Institute for Aghan Studies, Fall 2000.
 * "Analysis: Who are the Taleban?" BBC, December 20, 2000.
 * Zalmay Khalilzad and Daniel Byman, "Afghanistan: The Consolidation of a Rogue State," The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2000.

2001

 * In-Depth Special: "Afghanistan under the Taliban," CNN, 2001.
 * Jennifer Van Bergen, "Zalmay Khalilzad and the Bush Agenda," truthout, January 13, 2001.
 * Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, "Afghanistan, the Taliban and the United States. The Role of Human Rights In Western Foreign Policy," Media Monitors, May 2, 2001.
 * Robert Scheer, "Bush's Faustian Deal With the Taliban," Los Angeles Times (RobertScheer.com), May 22, 2001.
 * "India in anti-Taliban military plan. India and Iran will 'facilitate' the planned US-Russia hostilities against the Taliban," The Public Affairs Magazine, June 26, 2001.
 * Tony Karon, "The Taliban and Afghanistan. Understanding Bin Laden's hosts, the dilemma he poses for them, and the politics of the neighborhood," TIME Magazine, September 18, 2001.
 * Jim Garamone, "Afghanistan: A Battleground Through the Ages," Armed Forces Press Service, September 19, 2001.
 * Ahmed Rashid, "Pakistan, the Taliban and the US," The Nation, September 20, 2001.
 * "Who are the Taliban? AsiaSource, September 21, 2001.
 * "A look at the Taliban," USA TODAY, September 30, 2001.
 * Janelle Brown, "The Taliban's bravest opponents. An underground resistance of Afghan women risks torture and execution to alert the world to the regime's atrocities. One freedom fighter tells Salon her story," Salon, October 2, 2001.
 * Raphael F. Perl, "Taliban and the Drug Trade," Congressional Research Service, October 5, 2001.
 * Robert Marquand, "The reclusive ruler who runs the Taliban," Christian Science Monitor, October 10, 2001.
 * Michael C. Ruppert, "The Lies About Taliban Heroin. Russia and Oil the Real Objectives With Heroin As A Weapon of War. A Replay of CIA's Vietnam-era Drug Dealing. FTW Revises Its Map On Economic Impacts," From the Wilderness, October 10, 2001.
 * "Report on the Taliban's War Against Women," Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, November 17, 2001.
 * Phil Gasper, "Afghanistan, the CIA, bin Laden, and the Taliban," International Socialist Review (ThirdWorldTraveler.com), November/December 2001.
 * Elijah Zarwan, "Pipeline Politics: Oil, the Taliban, and the Political Balance of Central Asia," World Press Review, November/December 2001 (updated January 26, 2002).
 * John Pilger, "The truths they never tell us. Behind the jargon about failed states and humanitarian interventions lie thousands of dead," New Statesman (ZMag), November 26, 2001.

2002

 * William Maley, "The Foreign Policy of the Taliban," Council on Foreign Relations, 2002.
 * Tom Turnipseed, "From ENRON Entanglements to UNOCAL Bringing the Taliban to Texas and Controlling Afghanistan. A Creeping Collapse in Credibility at the White House," CounterPunch, January 10, 2002.
 * Nina Burleigh, "Bush, oil and the Taliban. Two French authors allege that before Sept. 11, the White House put oil interests ahead of national security," Salon, February 8, 2002.
 * Ron Callari, "The Enron-Cheney-Taliban Connection?" The Albion Monitor (AlterNet), February 28, 2002: "Could the Big Secret of the Enron scandal be that Cheney and the White House were working closely with the Taliban -- on Enron's behalf -- up to a few weeks before Sept. 11?"
 * Michael Rubin, "Who is Responsible for the Taliban?" Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA), March 2002.
 * "Enron gave Taliban $millions," Yahoo! (cache), March 4, 2002.
 * Michael Ware, "Encountering the Taliban. A TIME correspondent tracks down unrepentant anti-American forces who vow to keep fighting," TIME Magazine, March 22, 2002.
 * John Pike / Steven Aftergood, "Taleban ('the Seekers')," Intelligence Resource Program / FAS, Updated July 31, 2002.

2003

 * Zama Coursen-Neff and John Sifton, "Falling Back to Taliban Ways with Women," International Herald Tribune (Human Rights Watch), January 23, 2003.
 * Deepa Ollapally, "Unfinished Business in Afghanistan: Warlordism, Reconstruction, and Ethnic Harmony," United States Institute of Peace, April 2003.
 * Ian Mather, "Russia funding resurgent Taliban," The Scotsman, May 11, 2003.
 * Dennis Kux, et al., "Afghanistan: Are We Losing the Peace?" Council on Foreign Relations, June 2003.
 * Syed Saleem Shahzad, "US turns to the Taliban," Asia Times, June 14, 2003.
 * Sajit Ghandi, ed., "The September 11th Sourcebooks. Volume VII: The Taliban File," The National Security Archive, George Washington University, September 11, 2003.
 * Kimberly Zisk Marten, "Defending against Anarchy: From War to Peacekeeping in Afghanistan," The Washington Quarterly, Winter 2003.

2004

 * "U.S. OK’d plan to topple Taliban a day before 9/11. Panel report faults intelligence, lack of will," MSNBC, March 25, 2004.
 * Susan Block, "The Smack Daddies. Bush's Taliban Drug Deal," CounterPunch, April 21, 2004.
 * Pepe Escobar, "Taliban in Texas: Big Oil hankers for old pals," Asia Times, May 18, 2004.
 * "Afghanistan Reconstruction: Deteriorating Security and Limited Resources Have Impeded Progress; Improvements in U.S. Strategy Needed," U.S. Government General Accounting Office, June 2004.
 * "Afghanistan: Post-War Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy," Congressional Research Service, June 15, 2004.

2006

 * Ahmed Rashid, "A Taliban Comeback? Re-emergence of the ousted group threatens US-Pakistan alliance and triggers a new Great Game," YaleGlobal/Yale University, May 23, 2006.
 * Eben Kaplan, asst. ed., "The Taliban Resurgence in Afghanistan," Council on Foreign Relations, May 30, 2006.
 * "The Taliban resurgent. Anxious times for the under-manned Western forces," The Economist, June 8, 2006.
 * Nelofer Pazir, "Taliban's terror tactics reconquer Afghanistan," The Independent (UK), August 20, 2006.
 * Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Kyle Dabruzzi, "The New Taliban. The Islamic Courts Union is a growing power in Somalia, and a growing threat to the world," The Weekly Standard, August 28, 2006.
 * Sanjay Suri, "Taliban taking over," Asia Times, September 8, 2006.
 * Peter Bergen, "The Taliban, Regrouped And Rearmed," Washington Post, September 10, 2006.
 * Lionel Beehner, "Musharraf’s Taliban Problem," Council on Foreign Relations, Septmeber 11, 2006.
 * Declan Walsh, "Better paid, better armed, better connected - Taliban rise again. Kandahar under threat, war raging in two provinces and an isolated president. So what went wrong?" The Guardian (UK), September 16, 2006.
 * Michael Smith, "British troops in secret truce with the Taliban," The Sunday Times/Times Online (UK), October 1, 2006.
 * "The Return of the Taliban," PBS FRONTLINE, October 3, 2006.
 * Christian Parenti, "Taliban Rising," The Nation, October 12, 2006.
 * Lester Haines, "Taliban monster dope plants defy Canadian military. Fireproof Afghan marijuana," The Register (UK), October 13, 2006.
 * Anna Badkhen, "More voices urge co-opting Taliban. Some U.S. officials see inclusion as way to curb insurgency," San Francisco Chronicle, October 16, 2006.
 * Elizabeth Rubin, "In the Land of the Taliban," New York Times, October 22, 2006.
 * Jason Burke, "Taliban plan to fight through winter to throttle Kabul. Militia fighters are operating just an hour's drive from the capital's suburbs, confident of undermining Western support for the war," The Observer (UK), October 29, 2006.
 * Declan Walsh and Richard Norton-Taylor, "UN chief: Nato cannot defeat Taliban by force. Official says alliance failing in Afghanistan as Blair admits Iraq is a 'disaster'," The Guardian (UK), November 18, 2006.
 * Graeme Smith, "The Taliban: Knowing the enemy. Graeme Smith ventures into the infamously lawless Pakistani province of Baluchistan to meet foot soldiers of the Taliban," The Globe and Mail (Canada), November 27, 2006.
 * Ahmed Rashid, "Taliban Taking Back Afghanistan," Post Global/Washington Post, November 28, 2006.
 * "A new layeha for the Mujahideen. In a worldwide exclusive the Swiss weekly, Die Weltwoche, published the new Taliban codex. It is translated into English here for the first time. Layeha (book of rules) for the Mujahideen," signandsight.com, November 29, 2006. "The German translation of the new Taliban Codex originally appeared in Die Weltwoche on November 16, 2006. At the same time Die Weltwoche published an interview with a member of the Taliban leadership Mullah Sabir, featured here in English. Translation from the German: Lucy Powell and Toby Axelrod."
 * Ahmed Rashid, "Pakistan promotes Taliban's approval," London Daily Telegraph (UK) (Washington Times), December 4, 2006.
 * "A Growing Threat in Afghanistan. The Taliban Gets Closer to Kabul," Spiegel Online (Germany), December 4, 2006.
 * Henry Schuster, "The Taliban's rules," CNN, December 7, 2006.
 * Jason Burke, "Now we must face the facts and talk to the Taliban in Afghanistan," The Observer (UK), December 10, 2006.
 * Carlotta Gall and Ismail Khan, "Taliban and Allies Tighten Grip in North of Pakistan," New York Times (and International Herald Tribune), December 11, 2006.
 * Christopher Dickey, "The Taliban's Book of Rules. A nine-page pamphlet offers some chilling—and revealing—insights about Afghanistan’s former rulers," Newsweek (MSNBC), December 12, 2006.
 * Ann Jones, "Drug war, Taliban, poppies are all in full flower. Opium, thugs bloom under U.S. policies in Afghanistan war," San Francisco Chronicle, December 17, 2006.
 * Oakland Ross, "It's a battle for minds, Canadian officer says," Toronto Star (Canada), December 19, 2006.
 * Natasha Walter, "In the shadow of the Taliban," Mail & Guardian Online (Africa), December 20, 2006.
 * Oakland Ross, "Into the Taliban heartland," Toronto Star (Canada), December 23, 2006.
 * Brian Hutchinson, "Canadian troops surround Taliban. NATO forces leave Afghan insurgents 2 choices: Surrender, or fight way out," National Post and Canadian Press (Ottawa Citizen), December 23, 2006.
 * Paul Watson, "On the trail of the Taliban's support. More signs suggest Pakistan plays a role in aiding the Afghan insurgency," Los Angeles Times, December 24, 2006.
 * Laura King, "Taliban fighters finding refuge in provincial capital. Leaders move in and out of city, residents warn," Boston Globe, December 26, 2006.
 * David Montero, "Pakistan proposes fence to rein in Taliban," Christian Science Monitor, December 28, 2006.
 * Imtiaz Gul, "Mines, fence to stem aid to Taliban," The Age (Australia), December 28, 2006.

2007

 * Jamie Glazov, "Boys of the Taliban," FrontPageMag.com, January 1, 2007.
 * Taliban behead 7 Afghan "spies" in 10 days: official, Reuters, Jul 14, 2007