The Layeha, the Taliban Code of Conduct1

This chapter examines and compares a variety of Taliban’s Layeha or “codes of conduct. While these codes of conduct present explicit procedures as well as rules and regulations that Taliban leadership demand that their followers/insurgents follow relative to tactical and strategic objectives, these codes also represent sophisticated Taliban information operations. The Layeha presents how the Taliban, as an organization, plan to pursue their short- and long-term objectives. Chapter 8 explicitly compares and contrasts the codes of conduct published in 2010 and 2009 (and some discussion of the 2006 Layeha). An overview of these comparisons is presented in Tables 8.1 and 8.2. The chapter also presents the explicit Mullah Omar statements on the Layehas (Table 8.3). In addition the chapter presents an organizational analysis of the Taliban. Figure 8.1 presents the provincial military force structure of the Taliban and Table 8.4 presents the Taliban’s chain of command.