Strategic Culture and Violent Non­ 

State Actors:  Weapons of Mass

Destruction and Asymmetrical 

Operations Concepts and Cases

James M. Smith 

Jerry Mark Long 

Thomas H. Johnson

INSS Occasional Paper 64 

February 2008 

USAF Institute for National Security Studies

USAF Academy, Colorado
ii
iii

The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not

necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of 

the Air Force, the Department of the Navy, the Department of 

Defense, or the US Government. The paper is approved for public

release; distribution is unlimited. ******* ABOUT THE AUTHORS:

James M. Smith, PhD, is the Director, USAF Institute for National

Security Studies and Professor, Military Strategic Studies at the US 

Air Force Academy.

Jerry Mark Long, PhD, is Associate Professor and Director, Middle

East Studies, Honors College, Baylor University. Thomas H. Johnson is Research Professor at the Naval Postgraduate

School. Comments pertaining to this paper are invited; please forward to:

Director, USAF Institute for National Security Studies

HQ USAFA/DFES

2354 Fairchild Drive, Suite 5L27 

USAF Academy, CO 80840 

phone: 719­333­2717 

fax: 719­333­2716 

email: inss@usafa.edu

Visit the Institute for National Security Studies home page at

http://www.usafa.af.mil/df/inss
iv
v

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword  vii

Strategic Culture and Violent Non­State Actors: 1

Concepts and Templates for Analysis

James M. Smith 

Strategic Culture 3 

Policy Relevance 5 

Violent Non­State Actor Application  6 

Weapons of Mass Destruction Application  8 

Asymmetrical Operations Application  9 

Conclusions  11 

Cases Overview  12 

Notes  13

Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and Weapons of Mass 15

Destruction

Jerry Mark Long 

Background and Context  15 

The Classical Narrative 21 

Refashioning the Narrative 22 

Doctrines of War and WMD  26 

Applying to WMD  35 

Notes  39

The Taliban Insurgency and Its Tribal Dynamics: 45

An Analysis of Shabnamah (Night Letters)

Thomas H. Johnson 

Background and Context  45 

Taliban Narrative Analysis  54 

Implications and Conclusions  82 

Notes  86
vi
vii

FOREWORD

We are pleased to publish this sixty­fourth volume in the

Occasional Paper series of the United States Air Force Institute for

National Security Studies (INSS).  Across 2006 INSS focused 

research effort at investigating broad, contextual and cultural 

influences and their shaping influence on national security 

perceptions, decisions, and actions of both states and non­state 

actors.  One such effort was INSS involvement in a Defense Threat 

Reduction Agency Advanced Systems and Concepts Office project 

examining how strategic culture of states shapes their acquisition and 

use of weapons of mass destruction.  The INSS contribution was to 

extend the analysis into the non­state realm, and the contributions to 

this Occasional Paper by Jim Smith and Mark Long are the results of

that extension.  At the same time, and unrelated to the DTRA 

strategic culture project, Tom Johnson was applying his detailed 

expertise on tribal culture in Afghanistan to explain an operational 

campaign within the insurgency there.  This Occasional Paper, then,  combines three separate threads of analysis on culture and violent 

non­state actors as a launching pad to spur further research into this

critical arena of culture and security. 

In this Occasional Paper, Jim Smith lays out a conceptual basis 

and a series of templates for guiding analysis of culture and violent 

non­state actors.  These templates focus on analysis of WMD 

acquisition and use, and on culturally driven operational campaigns. 

While the two follow­on case studies did not specifically apply those

templates, they proceeded from the same conceptual foundation, and 

they are certainly compatible with the intent of Smith’s guidelines. 

Mark Long applies cultural analysis of radical Islam and al­Qaida in 

discussing the many factors and influences involved in the core al­ 

Qaida group’s WMD decisions.  His work graphically demonstrates 

the complexity of such decisions for that core group, and suggests 

that what many may find as counter­intuitive caution plays a major

role here.  And Tom Johnson, in examining a tribal insurgent 

psychological campaign in Afghanistan, demonstrates that traditional 

beliefs, myths and stories, and behavioral influences can be

manipulated for significant effect in countering our efforts to gain 

stability and legitimacy for the Afghan government.  Together these

papers underscore the central role of culture in analyzing and 

understanding non­state adversaries.
viii

About the Institute

INSS is primarily sponsored by the Strategic Plans and Policy 

Division, Headquarters US Air Force (HQ USAF/A5XP), and the

Dean of the Faculty, USAF Academy.  Other sponsors and partners 

include the Secretary of Defense’s Office of Net Assessment 

(OSD/NA); the Defense Threat Reduction Agency Advanced 

Systems and Concepts Office (DTRA/ASCO); the Air Force

Information Warfare Center (AFIWC); The Army Foreign Military 

Studies Office (FMSO); the Army Environmental Policy Institute 

(AEPI); the United States Northern Command/North American 

Aerospace Defense Command (NORTHCOM/NORAD); and the

United States Military Academy Combating Terrorism Center

(CTC).  The mission of the Institute is “to promote national security 

research for the Department of Defense within the military academic 

community, to foster the development of strategic perspective within 

the United States Armed Forces, and to support national security 

discourse through outreach and education.”  Its research focuses on 

the areas of greatest interest to our sponsors: strategic security and 

controlling and combating weapons of mass destruction; homeland 

defense, combating terrorism, and asymmetrical warfare; regional 

and emerging national security issues; and air, space, and cyber

issues and planning. 

INSS coordinates and focuses outside thinking in various 

disciplines and across the military services to develop new ideas for

defense policy making.  To that end, the Institute develops topics, 

selects researchers from within the military academic community,  and administers sponsored research.  It reaches out to and partners 

with education and research organizations across and beyond the

military academic community to bring broad focus to issues of

national security interest.  And it hosts workshops and facilitates the

dissemination of information to a wide range of private and 

government organizations.  In these ways, INSS facilitates valuable,  cost­effective research to meet the needs of our sponsors.  We

appreciate your continued interest in INSS and our research products. 

JAMES M. SMITH 

Director
Strategic Culture and Violent Non­State Actors:  Concepts and 

Templates for Analysis

James M. Smith

The policy application of strategic culture originated in the Cold War

experience of dealing with the Soviet Union on a range of strategic 

security issues—particularly negotiation on nuclear arms control, design of

nuclear strategy, and strategic crisis management experiences.  It was clear

to those involved in these activities that there were significant differences 

between the sides on values, perceptions, decision criteria, and decision 

structures and processes.  There evolved a firm realization of this 

distinctive “them” and “us” division, and with survival stakes at risk there

was strong incentive to seek to understand these differences and factor

them carefully into strategic plans, decisions, and actions. 

Thus the study of strategic culture flowed from a policy community 

“pull” and an academic community response.  This US­Soviet Union 

imperative should have been further reinforced by United States 

experiences in Korea and Vietnam (and it was within some sectors of

government; e.g. creation of the US Army Foreign Area Officer Program 

for one example), but in fact it languished as the Cold War stabilized and 

eventually waned.  It took the shocks of the attacks on the US homeland in 

September 2001 and the drawn­out stabilization actions in Afghanistan and 

Iraq across subsequent years to bring the concept back toward center stage.  Today there is renewed emphasis on language and cultural training, 

cultural and human intelligence, and there is growing acceptance of

cultural analysis and understanding as an essential level of analysis in both 

academic study and government strategic considerations. 

However, because cultural focus resided for so long secluded to 

academe—international and comparative politics, developmental 

economics, language study, history, geography, psychology, anthropology, 

sociology—its development for strategic application within government is
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

2 

today incomplete, and the demonstration of its full relevance as an 

analytical and predictive suite of policy tools is sporadic and inconclusive.  As one small example of where it is now being addressed within the

military academic setting, this author has adapted a hybrid systems 

construct of state security strategy, military doctrine, and force structure

that incorporates and is informed by many of the generally accepted 

determinants of strategic culture.  Further, that construct has been applied 

to comparative analysis of sub­state military services—linking strategic

culture to organizational culture—as well as to state­level military 

structures in employing the analysis.  Applications such as this illustrate 

promise and potential, but much more development remains necessary.  This brief concept paper is just one attempt to add to strategic culture

development by more deliberately specifying its structure and extending its 

application from its original state focus into the non­state arena, and doing 

so with specific focus on violent non­state actor (VNSA) decisions and 

actions relative to the acquisition and use of weapons of mass destruction 

(WMD), and to planning and conducting asymmetrical operations.  One

final preliminary point that must be made is that in the absence of a proven 

predictive model for strategic culture analysis, and particularly of its 

resultant WMD and asymmetrical operations decisions and actions, the

ideal would be to examine multiple cases to deduce and validate such a

model.  In the case of VNSA and WMD, the number of cases of actual use, 

let alone acquisition, is relatively small.  And while there are more cases of 

VNSA asymmetrical operations, few have been analyzed through a

distinctly cultural lens.  Thus, this paper proposes a general set of

descriptive factors to provide a prospective framework of probable 

strategic and operational decisions and actions as a foundation for further

case development.  This inductive approach should at least indicate key 

questions to ask and areas to examine in gaining a better understanding of
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

3 

a VNSA and its WMD/asymmetrical intentions and operations.  Then two 

illustrative cases—one addressing al­Qaida metanarrative and perspectives 

on WMD, the other Taliban narrative and the operational use of “night 

letters”—are presented to further illustrate the power of cultural­based 

analyses of violent non­state actors today.

STRATEGIC CULTURE

There is no consensus definition of strategic culture.  However, a

Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)/Advanced Systems and 

Concepts Office (ASCO)­sponsored “Comparative Strategic Culture”

study has adopted a working definition as follows:

Shared beliefs, assumptions, and modes of behavior, derived from 

common experiences and common narratives that shape collective

identity and relationships to other groups, and which determine

appropriate ends and means for achieving security objectives. 

1

While we can quibble with a word choice or two, this definition highlights

several key elements of the construct.  First, there is an identifiable chain 

of influence between determinants and cultural identity and resultant 

culturally derived behaviors.  At base, this determines the strategic “us,”

the strategically adversarial “them,” and the depth and contours of that 

adversarial relationship.  It also, within the “us,” determines the basis of 

that entity’s strategic rationality.  This is key for non­state actors, and 

particularly for VNSA such as terrorists that are often characterized as 

“non­rational” or even “irrational.”  In fact, at the strategic level these

groups are most often entirely rational—but that “rationality” is their

rationality, not ours.  Strategic culture provides a window into identifying 

and understanding this perspective.  A second key element of this 

definition is that strategic culture shapes strategic behaviors, particularly 

decision making and planning at the strategic and operational levels, with 

spillover effects onto tactical actions.  That is the critical point for

incorporating cultural analysis into intelligence and operational planning:
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

4 

there are distinct behavioral consequences from cultural inputs.  This point 

will be further addressed in the following section on the policy relevance

of the construct.  Third, these strategic behaviors determine the flow of the

strategic­to­operational security process, which for VNSA means that 

strategic culture shapes the forms, directions, audiences, and targets of

political violence, including WMD acquisition and use and also the design 

and execution of asymmetrical campaigns and operations.  This aspect of

strategic culture’s impact will be addressed in more detail in the section 

addressing VNSA applications below.  Finally, the definition posits a common set of determinates of strategic

culture derived from the study of states.  A representative listing of widely 

accepted state strategic culture determinates is depicted at Figure 1.  The

influences of these factors vary from state to state, both on their own 

merits and in combination, but distinct inputs result in distinct cultural 

influences.  Thus, states vary from a little to a lot in their strategic 

foundations, leading to distinct strategic decision processes and outcomes.

Figure 1:  Strategic Culture Determinants

Political Tradition(s)  Classical Texts/Stories 

History/Experience Defense Concept 

Beliefs/Values  Economic Resources 

Climate/Resources  Technological Base

Geography Strategic Culture Generational/Temporal 

For non­state actors, these determinates must be adjusted to the

specific circumstances of the actor.  For example, for a sub­state group or a

distinctly national non­state actor, factors such as geography and climate

that are often very significant for states may still apply much as they do 

with states.  However, for transnational or non­national non­state actors, 

these factors may have to be adapted to a regional or other broader focus,
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

5 

or some may even become minor or irrelevant.  Further, for transnational 

or internationally networked VNSA, there may be widely separated 

“national” nodes with very different influences, and as a result multiple 

cultural variants.  In these cases, there will likely be both similar and 

varied determinates and outcomes.  So while there is no single priority or

weighting of these factors, individually and together they exercise strong 

and sometimes complex shaping forces on both states and non­state actors, 

resulting in distinct strategic decisions and actions.

POLICY RELEVANCE

The central strategic culture dimension of interest to the policy 

community is strategic decision making.  Strategic culture shapes who 

decides, how they decide, the “what” and “how” of information search and 

analysis, the boundaries around and ranking criteria among acceptable

options, and the learning process that influences each subsequent round of

decision and action.  In sum, strategic culture determines the structure and 

process of strategic decisions.  Figure 2 depicts a sequence view of that 

influence.

Figure 2:  Strategic Culture Policy Dynamics

Strategic Culture

\/

Strategic Personality

\/

Strategic Perspective

\/

Strategic Behavior

Organizational culture is often compared to individual human 

personality.  In the same light, strategic culture has been applied to the

analysis of the “strategic personality” from individual leaders to the

characterization of a human­like personality of the state as an entity. 2

Whether or not those approaches are acceptable to a given observer, here
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

6 

the term “personality” is used to represent general focus on the decision 

structure and its dynamics.  These are strongly influenced by culture, and 

they are central elements of the process and product of strategic decision 

making.  Within all aspects of strategic policy decisions, the worldview of

the decision set—its strategic perspective—gives focus, direction, and 

priority to the decision process.  The interests of the entity, whether state 

or non­state, are defined and prioritized within and against this perspective.  And the behaviors that result from the strategic decision process are

directly shaped by these elements of strategic culture.  When addressing the cultures and behaviors of VNSA, care must be

taken to ensure individualized analysis of the decision sets, processes, and 

behaviors.  VNSA range from proto­states to separatists, from 

transnational terrorists to international criminals, from core decision sets to 

nodes, and each can be expected to display a distinct, perhaps unique, 

decision and action style.  There can be no “one­size­fits­all”

characterization.  The particular organizational entity—its strategic 

decision process, perspective, and behaviors—all must be carefully 

delineated and examined in detail for effective analysis.  And since these

strategic decisions for VNSA result in political violence that we are

seeking to moderate and defeat, clear understanding is essential.

VIOLENT NON­STATE ACTOR APPLICATION

The strategic culture framework components addressed to this point are

state­centered components that can and must be adapted for VNSA 

applications.  And indeed, a more tailored VNSA analytical framework can 

be specified.  It focuses the analysis on those factors that target and define

the political violence that the VNSA employs toward its strategic interests 

and objectives.  And a central defining characteristic of VNSA, regardless 

of the public cloak that they seek to display, is that they have a distinct 

political structure or substructure, as well as a specific operational element.
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

7 

These strategic­to­operational processes and structures, shaped by strategic 

culture, are depicted at Figure 3.

Figure 3:  VNSA Strategic Analysis Template

VNSA Identity

\/

VNSA Ideology

\/

VNSA Strategy

\/

VNSA Structure

\/

VNSA Doctrine

Identity and ideology define the “strategic us” of the VNSA and also 

provide the departure point for comparative designation of the “strategic 

them” of its adversary.  This is critically important to understand.  For

example, if the true goal of a terrorist group is more politically nuanced 

than “killing as many Americans as possible,” then this analysis will 

provide a much better understanding of who they want to influence and 

why, and following to strategy, what they might likely attack and toward 

what desired effects.  Identity and ideology are also key to understanding 

recruitment dynamics, the critical transformation to violence, support 

motivations, and other essential infrastructure dimensions of the group.  The clear bottom line is that combating a VNSA cannot be effectively 

planned without understanding its identity and ideology.  The VNSA 

strategy provides its “theory of victory,” strategic objectives, and broad 

operational guidance.  Again, it flows directly from the identity and 

ideology, and it is driven by the objectives derived there from.  The chain 

then flows directly to its operational structure and the operational 

capabilities needed to carry out the strategy and achieve the objectives. 

Full analysis and understanding at each step provides a window into 

analyzing and understanding the next link.  Finally, this culturally shaped
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

8 

strategic­to­operational chain also provides the doctrine, or operational 

code, for applied political violence by the group.  Tactical details flow 

from, and are not fully decipherable without the context of, strategic­ and 

operational­level factors and their driving influence.  This set of linked 

factors is further linked in turn to potential VNSA operations, including 

those potentially involving WMD.

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION APPLICATION

This framework delineates five key factors that define and allow 

analysis of the VNSA decisions and actions associated with WMD 

acquisition and use.  These factors imply questions that must be asked and 

answered before concluding whether and how a particular VNSA might 

seek and use WMD.  The position taken here is that VNSA do not 

universally covet WMD, and that acquisition does not automatically equal 

use.  Individual group analysis is needed to understand WMD decisions 

and actions.  This VNSA WMD analytical template, also shaped by 

strategic culture, is represented by the strategic­to­operational chain 

depicted at Figure 4.

Figure 4:  WMD Strategic Analysis Template

WMD Legitimacy

\/

WMD Utility

\/

WMD Capacity

\/

WMD Optimal Use

\/

WMD Employment Code

The VNSA identity and ideology will determine the legitimacy, and 

thus the desirability, of WMD to the group.  WMD may or may not, in 

fact, be deemed as legitimate to a particular segment of the core or active
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

9 

support populations of a VNSA, or be seen as justifiable within its base

ideology, whether religious or secular.  Similarly, the VNSA strategy 

indicates the group conception of WMD utility in obtaining strategic 

objectives.  Depending on those objectives, WMD could possibly be seen 

as overkill or counterproductive; or it could fully mesh with the strategic

outcomes sought.  The VNSA structure (operational, technical, economic)

determines the capacity of the group to absorb, manufacture, otherwise

acquire, maintain, deploy, and/or employ WMD.  Even if a VNSA sees 

WMD as positive, that group may not be capable of WMD use.  If the

group is capable, its doctrine shapes how the group envisions WMD 

optimal use (including target selection) and the group’s operational code

(including employment characteristics).  Again, detailed analysis of these

key factors is essential to a full understanding of whether and how a

VNSA might seek and use WMD.  Nothing short of this analysis can 

effectively answer those questions.

ASYMMETRICAL OPERATIONS APPLICATION

The framework finally lays out five key factors that describe and focus 

analysis on asymmetrical operations decisions and actions.  This template

is informed by the logic expressed by Mao Tse­tung:

The laws of war are a problem which anyone directing a war must 

study and solve. The laws of revolutionary war are a problem which anyone

directing a revolutionary war must study and solve. The laws of China’s revolutionary war are a problem which 

anyone directing China’s revolutionary war must study and solve. 3

The specific nature and characteristics of the conflict at hand—place, time, 

adversaries, circumstances, every aspect—are key to crafting success in a

campaign of asymmetrical violence, and this same full slate of tailored 

factors holds the key to understanding and combating, defeating, such a

campaign.  Again, there is no single one­size­fits­all set of answers, so we
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

10 

need a roadmap of questions to ask, factors to consider, in deciphering and 

defeating asymmetrical warfare undertaken against us.  One template for

such analysis, based in this cultural perspective and focusing on the 

operational as a bridge from strategic to tactical, is depicted at Figure 5.

Figure 5:  Asymmetrical Operations Analysis Template

AO Desired Endstate (Effects/Operational Objectives)

\/

AO Narrative Reinforcement

\/

AO Campaign Plan

\/

AO Action Cadre

\/

AO Tactics

Just as the VNSA identity and ideology determine the group’s concept 

of legitimacy for WMD, these same defining strategic factors directly 

determine the desired endstate that defines the focus, scope, and character

of an operational campaign.  Here the strategic rationale and objectives of

the VNSA are translated into the objectives and instrumental effects sought 

by violence within the specific realities of the local environment; “China’s 

revolutionary war.”  Equally important, that strategic group definition 

provided by its identity and ideology is also translated into its 

operationally relevant narrative, the “story” that captures the context of the

campaign of violence, legitimizes that use of force against its specifically 

defined victims and targets, and motivates and transforms the applications 

of specific violence.  Similarly, the overall strategy is recast into an 

operational campaign plan to achieve the desired effects consistent with 

the rationale of the narrative.  An operational cadre is designated for the

specific composition, training, equipping to implement the plan of action, 

and appropriate, tailored tactics are designated—almost certainly 

asymmetrical—to achieve the operational objectives against a capable foe.
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

11 

Each group, campaign, and action tailors itself to the “objective

realities” of its operational environment, and the entire strategic­tooperational­to­tactical chain of influence is needed to fully understand, 

prevent or limit, and ultimately defeat the VNSA action.  Focusing simply 

on the tactical action can only allow reaction as it misses all of the context 

that is central to a strategy to combat and defeat the VNSA.

CONCLUSIONS

The complete framework at Figure 6 depicts all of these pieces 

together:  cultural determinants, decision and action consequences, VNSA 

applications, and WMD and asymmetrical operations applications.  And

Figure 6: Strategic Culture, VNSAs, and Effects Analysis Framework

Political Tradition(s)  Classical Texts/Stories 

History/Experience Defense Concept 

Beliefs/Values  Economic Resources 

Climate/Resources  Technological Base

Geography  Strategic Culture Generational/Temporal 

\/

Strategic Personality 

\/

Strategic Perspective

\/

Strategic Behavior

\/ \/ \/

VNSA Identity  AO Desired Endstate 

\/ WMD Legitimacy  AO Narrative

VNSA Ideology  \/ Reinforcement 

\/ \/

VNSA Strategy  WMD Utility  AO Campaign Plan 

\/ \/ \/

VNSA Structure WMD Capacity  AO Action Cadre

\/ \/ \/

VNSA Doctrine WMD Optimal Use AO Tactics 

WMD Employment 

Code
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

12 

strategic culture influences all VNSA decisions and actions leading to 

political violence, including the employment of WMD or the mounting of

an asymmetrical campaign.  This framework applies directly to describing, understanding, and 

countering VNSA strategic decisions and actions.  It explains how the

group defines itself and what it hopes to achieve.  It further explains the

VNSA decision structure and process, with specific information on group 

information searches and processing, organizational learning, and the

framing and prioritization of strategic options.  It also informs us about the

VNSA process of specifying, organizing, and carrying out political 

violence.  Importantly, it includes a specific focus that allows analysis and 

understanding of how WMD fits—or does not fit—into the strategy, 

structure, and operations of the group.  And it also extends the analysis to 

decoding VNSA asymmetrical operational campaigns and the direct 

application of their tactical violence that so often is viewed in isolation 

from its strategic context.  It provides a vital culturally based lens into the

inner thinking and actions of a range of VNSA.

CASES OVERVIEW

Predictive applications of the framework await multiple descriptive

applications and fully developed cases.  Only such repeated analyses can 

flesh out and sharpen, or amend, this template in the hope to create a

record of consistency that would begin to provide a basis for confidence in 

prospective analysis.  That series of applications remains to be completed.  At this point, however, we do present two cases, neither directly and 

deliberately employing this specific framework, but each is undertaken 

from a distinctly cultural perspective of a contemporary VNSA.  One is an 

analysis at the strategic level and based in the metanarrative that defines 

core al­Qaida’s identity and ideology behind that group’s decision calculus 

toward the acquisition and use of WMD.  The other is an analysis that
Smith—Strategic Culture and VNSA

13 

translates Taliban narratives to the operational level and details one

application within an operational campaign.  These cases are worthy 

studies completely on their own merits, but they also underscore the power

of cultural analysis that this strategic culture framework seeks to also 

underscore and facilitate.  We commend them to your attention.

NOTES

1 SAIC Summary Report, “Comparative Strategic Culture: Phase II Kickoff 

Workshop,” 13 February 2006, 6.

2 See, for example, Caroline F. Ziemke, Philippe Loustaunau, and Amy Alrich,

Strategic Personality and the Ef ectiveness of Nuclear Deterrence

(Alexandria, VA: Institute for Defense Analyses, November 2000) for one

state “personality” analysis; and Barry R. Schneider and Jerrold M. Post, editors, Know Thy Enemy: Profiles of Adversary Leaders and Their Strategic

Cultures, Second Edition (Maxwell AFB, AL, USAF Counterproliferation 

Center, July 2003), for examples of leader “personality” profiles.

3 Mao Tse­tung, “Problems of Strategy in China’s Revolutionary War”

(December 1936), in Selected Military Writings of Mao Tse­tung (Peking:

Foreign Languages Press, 1968), 77.
Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and Weapons of Mass Destruction1

Jerry Mark Long 

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

An analyst writing for a prominent counterterrorism think tank 

recently offered a “primer” on the world’s most feared terrorist network 

and the potential employment of weapons of mass destruction (WMD).  Saying that an al­Qaida attack using these weapons is “inevitable,” the 

analyst held that such employment “would serve all the traditional 

purposes of terrorism: symbolism, propaganda, and psychological impact, 

irrespective of the failure or success of the mission.”  Then, in a sweeping 

conclusion, the analyst averred, “What matters is to cause mass 

casualties....  In this context discussions about motives to deploy WMD 

are irrelevant.  No matter how complex the deep principles or incentives 

behind WMD terrorism, the only reliable motive is an unflinching desire to 

slay blindly.”

2 (emphasis added)

“Irrespective of success or failure.”  “Slay blindly.”  Unfortunately, 

the analyst’s views seem to be as common as they are categorical and 

reductionistic.  Al­Qaida’s true aim, despite the spectacular assault on the

World Trade Center, has never been simply indiscriminate slaughter. 

Indeed, its long­term goals have been articulated in a multitude of venues 

and with remarkable consistency.  Although its ideologues have vigorously 

debated methods of achieving them, blind slaying has not numbered 

among them, whether as means or end.  In studying al­Qaida documents, 

something else emerges:  a view of the world and a strategic code more

richly textured, nuanced, calculating, even deadly.  Al­Qaida may indeed 

someday use WMD, but it will do so having calibrated its aims and— 

despite our author’s assertion—success will count. 

But the account given above falls short in another way, and it is this: 

we can no longer speak of a single al­Qaida, a vertical organization with a
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

16

shura council rigorously controlling a top­down structure.  It is better

viewed as an ideology metastasizing through multiple “al­Qaidas,”

franchises that import the original message of the proto­al­Qaida and adapt 

it to local and national exigencies.  Increasingly, “al­Qaida” must be taken 

as a political metonymy, an expression to indicate an array of global 

Islamic organizations, operating with varying levels of autonomy, but 

generally subscribed to a salafist religious narrative that stipulates a

political order which will be achieved through the use of controlled 

violence.  The original al­Qaida remains, but it is no longer simply the

hierarchical structure developed in the 1990s following the mujahideen 

triumph in Afghanistan.  “Al­Qaida” is now an idea spread throughout the

blogosphere, and that is where the greater threat lies. 

The question of jihadist use of WMD must therefore be put in a double 

context.  First, one must examine al­Qaida as a violent non­state, nonnational actor whose ideology posits a nexus of strategic principles and 

suggests an operational code.  Then, one must examine particular “al­ 

Qaidas,” violent non­state national actors, which may import that 

ideology, tailor it to local exigencies, and develop specific national 

operational codes.  In taking this two­tiered approach, we are not 

discounting that Osama and the original al­Qaida may attempt to acquire

and use WMD, but we are asserting that multiple jihadist groups are now 

deliberating possible use in their respective national settings.  Thus, the

question western analysts face is considerably more complex than simply, 

“What is the likelihood al­Qaida will employ WMD?” This paper will take only an initial step in the complex task of trying to 

determine whether and under what circumstances al­Qaida and its affiliates 

may use WMD.  It will confine itself to examining the ideology, 

approached as narrative, of the original al­Qaida, not particular franchises. 

It will ask what its views are with respect to the acquisition and
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

17 

employment of WMD, and it will do so by using strategic culture as an 

analytic concept.  What emerges is a contested ideology, but also one of

substantial nuance, and—as we shall see—something considerably 

advanced beyond a simple desire to employ WMD to slay blindly. Al­Qaida and strategic culture as analytic tool

As an analytic concept, strategic culture studies developed in the

1970s, following the earlier idea of a political culture among elites, a

“culture” amenable to critical analysis.  Once the culture was understood, 

analysts could then make predictions about political behavior.   As the idea

developed, analysts applied the idea of strategic culture to the Soviet 

Union.  In its usual formulation, the Soviets were seen as developing 

specific operational codes based on a long­developing culture that 

stemmed from centuries of Russian history and the wars that swept across 

Eastern Europe to the Russian heartland.  Thus, analysts ascribed 

operational doctrines like “defense in depth” and “correlation of forces” to 

facets of a deeper strategic culture, a set of factors that made for a kind of

historically­imposed inertia on present actions. 

3

Analysts of violent non state actors have recently revived the concept, 

looking for a more insightful way of describing (and, where possible, 

predicting) strategic behaviors than simply positing them to a given actor’s 

forward­looking calculation of maximum utility.  That is especially 

important when looking at al­Qaida, for game theory is unable to take

adequate account of suicide bombing.  In such a case, of course, the actor

does nothing to maximize his utility, but quite the opposite.  And yet the

rationality of the bombers seems intact, from a psychological point of

view, 4and when examined within a religious and historical context—the

very thing strategic culture analysis compels us to do—the sacrifice the 

bombers make is both explicable and consistent.  To use Hedrick Smith’s 

apt phrase from another context (that of Soviet political behavior), what
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

18 

one confronts in the Middle East today is the weight of the salafist past

upon the Islamist present.  Strategic culture helps us read al­Qaida’s past

and offers an interpretation of present actions. 

At the outset, one must acknowledge a special consideration in 

seeking to use strategic culture as a tool to examine al­Qaida.  Heretofore, 

it has been used with respect to state actors.   Al­Qaida, despite its dreams 

of a renewed caliphate, is not a state.  Moreover, in the parlance of

international relations, it isn’t even a nation.  It is transnational.  But the

ostensible weakness of strategic culture as a tool may be its very strength, 

if prudently applied.  “Nation” is a protean concept.  One way of

approaching it is to see a nation as a group of people who strongly identify 

with an overarching, shared cultural narrative, a key focus in strategic 

culture analysis.  Indeed a state has effective political cohesion to the

degree it is coterminal with that nation and its narrative.  Thus, in many ways the nation is the unit more susceptible of strategic

culture analysis, an analysis appropriate to the state only to that degree the

state comprises those who share a national narrative.  The Moro Islamic

Liberation Front, the Tamil Tigers, the Basque separatists, the Chechen 

rebels, and Hamas would be amenable to this analysis, for while they are

violent non­state actors, they are yet national actors within a state setting.  The same could be said for particular “al­Qaidas” within a local setting,  whether in Bali, Morocco, or “Londonistan.”  This conceptualization 

would seem especially pertinent to national groups in Iraq.  Rather than 

attempt to analyze violence in the Iraqi state as a whole, a more fruitful 

approach would see Iraq as an artificial state that comprises three nations. 

With respect to its creation after World War I, Sir Anthony Parsons, long a

British diplomat in the Middle East, observed, “Woodrow Wilson had 

disappeared by then, and there wasn’t much rubbish about selfdetermination.  We, the British, cobbled Iraq together.  It was always an
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

19 

artificial state; it had nothing to do with the people who lived there.”5

Strategic culture takes account of that crucial historical dimension.  It 

would approach the Iraqi Sunni and Shia militants, not merely as 

combatants in a state’s civil war, but as two nations who battle each other.  Each side has its own deep cultural narrative, and each side has its account 

about The Other and the threat the other poses to its own values and very 

existence.  Strategic culture, in approaching the state of Iraq, must analyze

multiple narratives—just as it must for any non­homogenous state.   And 

to the degree that a state is markedly pluralistic (i.e., differing national 

groups vying for advantage within a given government structure), strategic

culture loses focus as an analytic tool, unless it allows for multiple

narratives. 

Which brings us to the question of whether al­Qaida, transnational as 

it is, would be amenable to such analysis.  The answer is a qualified “yes.”

Religion can serve as a powerful ethnic marker, 6a critical element 

constitutive of identity.  In the case of Islam, the appeal that salafi jihadists

make is that the bond of religion trumps state identification.  This

replicates the pattern of early Islam, wherein the forefathers claimed that 

loyalty to the ummah, the Islamic community, was to supersede asabiyya, 

loyalty to the kinship group.  In support, jihadists frequently cite Q 2:143, 

“Thus we have made of you/an Ummat justly balanced/that ye might be 

witnesses/over the nations [al­nas, lit., “the people” or “the multitudes”].”

For al­Qaida, the organization is simply a tangible expression of this larger

ummah. 7 And the ummah is not so much transnational as it is the nation 

which is trans­global.  In contradistinction, say, to the Tamil Tigers who 

see themselves as a nation operating within the state context of Sri Lanka, 

al­Qaida members view their imagined ummah as that nation which is

larger than any state.  From the western perspective, those from other

countries who travel to Iraq as suicide bombers represent different
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

20

nationalities that have converged on a failed state.  From the Islamist 

perspective, these are members of the one nation who have traveled to the

region to defend their religion bi amwal wa anfusihim, with their 

possessions and their lives.  The brilliance of Osama and others is in the

crafting of a religious narrative that gives a thick account of this nation, the

ummah, and thus makes it a cultural reality for which men and women are

willing to die.  It is that nation and its narrative that we analyze here using 

the tools of strategic culture. 

In this approach, we will take “strategic culture”

8

to indicate an 

ideational milieu, one that makes important assumptions about the

fundamental values of the community, the nature of the enemy that 

threatens those values, and the role of war in defending the same.  These

fundamental values coalesce in what we will term a meta­narrative, the 

overarching story that situates individuals in a distinct community, 

provides a cognitive roadmap by which they are to live, and that motivates 

members to protect the community against its enemies, even in the face of

death.  Within this larger narrative, elites rank order strategic options 

about how best to defend and promote the community through warfare.

Strategic Culture

(Ideational milieu; 

Assumptions about war)

Metanarrative

(Community story 

about culture)

Strategic Preferences

(Rank­ordered options about 

appropriate defense measures)

Behavior

(Operationalized defensive measures 

constrained by culture and exigency)
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

21 

Then, in the messy details of contingent circumstances, decision makers 

act to achieve those valued ends.  We may diagram as depicted above.  The

remainder of this paper will focus especially on the second step of this

diagram, the meta­narrative of al­Qaida and its concomitant preferences. 

Following that, it will then suggest what behaviors may arise within that 

“national” and trans­global entity.

THE CLASSICAL NARRATIVE

The classical view in Islam about the world and the role of jihad arose

during the Abbasid caliphate.  This doctrine developed following a series 

of stunning and quite rapid victories over rival tribes in the Arabian 

peninsula, and the larger but effete empires of the Byzantines and 

Persians. 

9 The story was retrospective, providing a justification for

warfare, an explanation for its victories, and a justification for the ethical 

dimension of Islam’s actions.  This narration rendered the world thus:

dar al­Islam  ahl al­kitab  dar al­harb

(house of Islam) (people of the book) (house of war)

In this formulation, there was a categorical divide between the

believers and the unbelievers, yet it provided an intermediate space for ahl 

al­kitab, people of the book, generally Christians, Jews, and other

monotheists.  Between the two houses there is perennial war.  There may 

be occasional periods of sulh, a cessation of hostilities, or a hudna, a truce, 

but not salaam, true peace.  Eventually, Islam will triumph, despite

whatever setbacks it may suffer in the meantime.  And that is a key point, 

for this inevitable victory requires faith, calculation, and long­term 

patience.  Despite representations in modern art, as Islam spread geographically, 

the aim was not forced conversions, but insuring that conquered peoples 

recognized the supremacy of Islam.  Moreover, Islamist jurists formulated
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

22 

rules of warfare that parallel the West’s ideas about jus ad bellum and jus

in bello; e.g., what constitutes a threat against Islam, who should be

considered combatants, the permissibility of collateral damage, and what 

intentional damage might be inflicted on an enemy’s territory. 10 It is 

important to note that this was not a monolithic formulation; there was a

great deal of debate among Muslim scholars about how these questions 

ought to be answered. 11 It was also true of the principle of da c wa, the

appeal that Muslims were to make to non­Muslims to embrace Islam.  Scholars debated ways in which da c wa ought to be promulgated.  They 

also debated who could live in tributary status:  no one at all, monotheists

only, or polytheists as well.

REFASHIONING THE NARRATIVE

Al­Qaida’s formulation draws from this classical doctrine, as well as 

from a number of medieval and modern thinkers and movements (Ibn­ Taymiyya, wahhabism, Maududi, Qutb, Abdullah Azzam, and many 

others).  In this reformulation, Osama functions as a kind of lay mujtahid, 

one who gives independent interpretation to Islamic texts.  But it is critical 

to understand that Osama is not free to give just any interpretation, or else

he would have no legitimacy.  Rather he functions within an historical and 

religious tradition that has set the parameters within which he must move.  Moreover, he is clearly influenced by his mentors and by those other

ideologues in al­Qaida with whom he interacts.  In this regard, it is better

to see Osama as a kind of Homer who does not invent his story but must

refashion what has come to him in his cultural context.  And it is equally 

important to see that al­Qaida is not monolithic.  Osama is iconic and even 

something of a batil, an Islamic hero, but he is not imperator whose ideas 

alone carry weight.  Within al­Qaida, as is true of Islam more generally, 

there is sharp contestation, and those who read the primary materials will 

see the degree to which that is true.  And a critical corollary merges here.
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

23 

A single fatwa does not constitute the definitive al­Qaida position on an 

issue, nor is al­Qaida’s doctrine frozen in ahistorical time.  It is dynamic. 12

Yet one may describe al­Qaida thinking in broad terms with relative

accuracy.  It begins with the dichotomy of the house of war and the house

of Islam.  Osama and others have appealed to this division on countless 

occasions.  Osama’s statement several weeks after 9/11 is typical.  “These

events have divided the whole world into two camps, the camp of the

faithful and the camp of the infidels.  May God shield us and you [i.e., 

other Muslims] from them.”13 But al­Qaida’s use  significantly attenuates 

the intermediate space for people of the book, and Jews are almost never

offered any consideration for this category.  On the other hand, the

category dar al­harb, pretty much an undifferentiated mass in classical 

thinking, is particularized in contemporary thinking.  It posits a trifecta of

enemies:  The West; The Jews; and Traitorous Arab leaders. 

Each of those may be further differentiated, using either secular or

religious terms.  For instance, the West may become either the “crusaders”

or the “imperialists.”  Often it is simply “America.”  A particularly 

important term in their lexicon for the west is kafirun, unbelievers, and 

President Bush is designated “head of the unbelievers.”  The Jews 

generally are “Zionists” or the “Zionist entity.”  And the traitors among 

Arab leaders (usually heads of state in the Gulf Cooperation Council and 

virtually all senior members of the Saudi royal family) are “agents,”

intermediaries who do the bidding of the West and who fail to implement 

Islamic law, the sharic a. 14 More significantly, al­Qaida terms them

murtadun, apostates.  That is significant, for classical Islam stipulated 

harsher treatment for those who had left the faith than for simple

unbelievers.  Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is a “layman” who 

“bartered away the true religion.”  And among non­Arab, Muslim leaders 

lumped in that category is President Musharrif of Pakistan, the “traitor” of
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

24 

Islam.  Moreover, these categories sometimes get blended.  Israel, for

instance, is frequently accused of having formed a “Crusader­Zionist 

alliance” with the West.  Great Britain and the United States have formed 

“armies of unbelief” and “the Crusader West.”15 The interim prime

minister of Iraq, Ibrahim al­Ja’fari, is the “servant of the cross” who has 

declared war on his Muslim co­religionists.  And so on, in seemingly 

endless permutations.

Key dates

Al­Qaida’s contemporary doctrinal reformulation has, of course, taken 

place within a specific historical context, and several dates are critical to 

the Islamists.  Apart from the obvious deeper history that al­Qaida often 

cites (the loss of the Iberian peninsula, the crusades, etc), several more

recent events of the last century stand out, and al­Qaida ideologues 

frequently reference them.  Here are five of those key dates.

1916  Sykes­Picot

Radicals (and indeed most Arabs) view this as the date of the great 

betrayal, when Britain secretly pursued its imperialist aims in the

region, at the expense of the Arabs. 16 It is a strongly evocative date 

and seen as contributing to the end of the caliphate (1923) and the

implementation of an “imperialist” mandate system.  Immediately 

after 9/11, Osama released an audio tape in which he claimed that the

attack on the WTC was retaliation for a series of Western assaults on 

the region, beginning with the critical era in World War I.

1948  Establishment of Israel

May, 1948, is read as part of a western plot to establish a beachhead 

on Muslim lands, and most Muslims and Arabs generally call this al­ 

nakba, the disaster.   Al­Qaida is more specific.  This “loss of

Palestine” is not merely loss of territory.  It represents the loss of

Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the first qibla (direction
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

25 

of prayer).  Even Saddam, in his Machiavellian way, sought to 

leverage the religious aspect of Jerusalem as legitimation for his

invasion of Kuwait.  Many al­Qaida pronouncements, as with the 1998 

fatwa, list the recovery of Palestine and the first qibla as a key war

aim.

1967  The June War

Often referred to in the region as another nakba, Islamists hi­light it as 

the failure of secular Arab nationalism and, indeed, the judgment of

God.  From this point, Islamists propounded their own alternative,  what they have termed al­Hal al­islami, the Islamic solution.  That has 

proved a paradigm, of sorts.   Hezbollah, Hamas, the Muslim 

Brotherhood, and al­Qaida have seized on any sort of disaster as an 

opportunity to show—by rhetoric and practice—the superiority of the

Islamic solution, mobilizing the aid that feckless Arab governments

cannot, then exploiting the public relations moment. 17

1973  The Ramadan/Yom Kippur War

Arabs view this as the war that restored the nation’s honor (after the

debacle of 1967) and demonstrated the vulnerability of the Zionist 

enemy. 

18 Indeed, it made possible—at least in Sadat’s view—a trip to 

Jerusalem to address the Knesset and participate in the Camp David 

talks.  But it is important with respect to the history of al­Qaida.  Osama has pointed to this as the beginning of his return to Islam.  Because of the massive U.S. airlift to reinforce Israel after its initial 

setbacks in the Sinai, the war indicated to Osama the unalterable 

commitment of the West to support the Zionist entity, a formative

event in the development of al­Qaida’s view of the real nature and 

structure of the house of war.  Not incidentally, this was underscored 

again in July 2006 when the United States resupplied Israel in its war

with Hezbollah.
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

26

1990  The Gulf War

It is difficult to overstate the importance of this period.  Osama, flush 

from victory in Afghanistan, offered to employ his mujahideen to 

repel Saddam.  The Saudis turned instead to the West.  But more

important than United States intervention was the continued U.S.

presence in the peninsula, a “defilement” that radicals compared to 

that of a woman ritually unclean during her monthly cycle. 19 This was 

the final validation, to Osama and others, of the West’s intent to 

overrun the house of Islam, and provocation (jus ad bellum) to launch 

a “defensive” war, on their view. 20

DOCTRINES OF WAR AND WMD

It is this meta­narrative, selectively derived from classical doctrine and 

reshaped through historical contingency, that forms the basis for al­Qaida’s 

strategic preferences and operational code.  Al­Qaida, in fact, has made no 

secret of its strategic views, even if it practices reasonably good OPSEC 

with respect to operational employment.  It is possible to “read al­Qaida’s 

playbook,” as a recent publication of the Combating Terrorism Center at 

the United States Military Academy puts it. 21 And to read it, is to be

immediately struck by how thorough al­Qaida ideologues have been in 

deliberating warfighting doctrine in light of the larger worldview of

radical, salafist Islam.  The reductionistic approach of reading al­Qaida as 

simply an undifferentiated group of terrorists seeking spectacular effects

by indiscriminately killing massive numbers of Americans is a serious 

misreading indeed.  Here, then, are three key points of doctrine.

· The war al­Qaida fights will be a long war, requiring patience and 

careful calculation.  The authoritative source here is the writing of Sayyid 

Qutb, and he merits quoting at length on this critical point. 

[T]he growing bankruptcy of western civilization makes it 

necessary to revive Islam.  The distance between the revival of
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

27 

Islam and the attainment of world leadership may be vast...but the

first step must be taken....  The Muslim community [i.e., the

umma] today is neither capable of nor is required to present before

mankind great genius in material inventions, such as would make

the world bow its head before its supremacy and thus re­establish 

once more its world leadership.  Europe’s creative mind is far

ahead in this area, and for a few centuries to come we cannot 

expect to compete with Europe....  How to initiate the revival of 

Islam?  A vanguard must set out with this determination and then 

keep going, marching through the vast ocean of jahiliyyah

[ignorance of the true faith] which encompasses the entire

world....  The Muslims in this vanguard must know the landmarks 

and the milestones on the road to this goal so that they would 

know the starting point as well as the nature, the responsibilities, 

and the ultimate purpose of this long journey. 22

In his statement the month after the attack on the WTC, Osama used 

precisely this term—“vanguard”—which Qutb had used, claiming that it 

was they who had struck a blow against America.   He finished his

statement claiming, “The wind of change is blowing to remove evil from 

the peninsula of Muhammad.”23 In the ideological trajectory of his

doctrinal mentor, Osama was stating the vanguard had set out on its long 

journey with this major blow against the dar al harb, and that winds of

change had begun to stir, not that the task was completed nor even near

completion.  And al­Qaida understands that the fight is lengthy precisely 

because its fight is asymmetric, despite the dramatic success on 9/11.  In 

fact, in a moment of candor after his “period of solitude,” al­Qaida

ideologue Abu Mus c ab al­Suri declared, “It is inconceivable to imagine the

defeat and destruction of America, with all the military and economic

power that it has reached, except through natural disasters.”24 Hence the

comment of al­Qaida on its al­Nidaa web site about the necessity of

unconventional warfare in 2003:  “We expected that the method of defense

of regular or semi­regular [Iraqi forces] would collapse....  [Thus] we have

focused on the modus operandi of guerilla warfare.  This is the most
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

28 

powerful method Muslims have...[for] there is no chance that in the years 

to come we will be allowed to possess the elements of strength.”25

This is not to indicate despair on the part of the Islamists but the

realization that theirs is a long battle to gain the supremacy of Islam.  In 

fact, the al­Nidaa statement emphasizes that guerilla warfare proved 

successful against the Americans in Vietnam and the Russians in 

Afghanistan.  While it will occasionally be able to launch major

operations, increasingly much of its focus must be on what Abu Bakr Naji

calls “vexation and exhaustion operations” in his Management of

Savagery. 26 Similarly, al­Qaida understands it must constantly evaluate 

and recalibrate its plans, based on careful study of jihads, past and present, 

and their relative success.  Al­Suri is especially pertinent here as an al­ 

Qaida intellectual who has produced a critical study on earlier experiences 

of jihads that failed, especially in Syria and the Hama Uprising in 1982. 27

· The war al­Qaida fights will generally be couched as a defensive

war, and therefore morally legitimate.  That was clearly the case after 9/11 

when al­Qaida pronouncements repeatedly described the attack as a

justified retaliation for western aggression against Muslims.  The point is 

important, for it shows al­Qaida sensitivity to international condemnations. 

Describing it as defensive has an additional benefit with respect to Islamic 

jurisprudence.  Classical thinking differentiated jihad as fard kifayah or

fard ayn, a collective obligation or an individual obligation.  In the former

case, the community was responsible for mustering a contingent who could 

conduct an offensive jihad.  But the latter obtained when the Islamic 

community came under attack, and every individual must come to its 

defense.  Osama’s (et al) famous February 1998 fatwa uses exactly this

approach.  The Arabian peninsula, with its sanctities, had come under

attack.  All Muslims, therefore, must come to its defense.  Some months
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

29 

later, Osama gave an interview with al­Jazeera in which he commented on 

the jihadists who had carried out attacks against Riyadh (1995), Khobar

(1996), and the US embassies in Africa (1998).  “I look at these men with 

much admiration and respect, for they have removed the shame from the

forehead of our umma.”28 Osama’s comment reflects both Arab culture, as 

well as Islamist conviction.  In his view, Arab honor had been besmirched 

by the colonialist West, and a reprisal attack, after the pattern of ghazw,  was necessary to restore the honor and remove the shame.  But Osama also 

cast this in Islamic terms: shame had come to the Islamic nation, and God 

had given authorization to defend the community:

To those against whom 

War is made, permission 

is given to fight, 

because they are wronged—and verily,  God is most powerful 

For their aid.  Q 22:39 

This same pairing of culture and religion may be found in Military Studies 

in the Jihad against the Tyrants, captured by British authorities in 

Manchester, England, in May 2000.  Note that the title itself implies that 

this is defensive; this is preparation to turn back tyranny.  The book opens 

with a “pledge” to “the sister believer whose clothes have been stripped 

off...whose hair the oppressors have shaved...whose body has been 

abused by the human dogs.”29 The imagery is striking, for it depicts

violation of a woman’s

c irdh, honor.  The humiliation that takes place

(stripping, shaving) is indicative of violating a major cultural taboo, and 

the reference to dogs, generally seen as unclean in Arab culture, 

compounds the sense of previous violation.  This violation mandates a

response.  For the Islamists, therefore, jihad is morally warranted, both 

culturally and religiously.
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

30 

Abu Bakr Naji gives a much more nuanced analysis. In The

Management of Savagery, Naji presents jihad as necessary to reverse

moral entropy.  On his view, jihad is a merciful gift from heaven: 

Before God sent down the law of jihad, He wanted to show 

humanity what would happen without jihad so that they would see

the complete wisdom of the Lawgiver, praised and exalted be He.  The result was terrible: stupid, stubborn opposition from most of

the people and the followers of Satan....  [T]he generations 

become corrupt upon the earth and spread unbelief and corruption 

among humans. They even work to create a fitna [chaos, 

dissension] for the believing few, either by direct pressure or by 

the fitna of exalting unbelief and its people in the eyes of the weak 

few among the believers....  [In the gift of jihad, God shows the]

completeness of [his] mercy to humanity, for this restores justice

and averts eternal punishment for those who believe. 30

This idea of jihad as a moral reprisal because of infidel attacks has 

been publicly articulated on numerous occasions.  Abu Gheith, for

instance, used it to describe 9/11.  “Why were millions of people

astounded by what happened to America on September 11?”  Gheith 

asked.  “America is the reason for all oppression, injustice, licentiousness, 

or suppression that is the Muslims’ lot.”  It was therefore appropriate to 

“punish a Harbi infidel in the same way he treated a Muslim.”31 Similarly, 

Islamists depicted the London bombings in July 2005 as reprisal for earlier

attacks against Muslims.  On the first anniversary of the bombings, Al­ 

Qaida released a martyr video of Shehzad Tanweer, one of the London 

bombers.  The British govt had “declared war on Islam,” he said, attacking 

without cause “mothers, children, brothers and sisters...in Palestine,  Afghanistan, Iraq, and Chechnya.”  Non­Muslim British were guilty, by 

extension, for they had voted in the government which was responsible for

those depredations.  Zawahiri added a voiceover, saying these men were

motivated by love of God and of his prophet. 32 And later in the month,  Zawahiri released another tape after Israel invaded Lebanon.  In this,  Zawahiri justified Hezbollah, calling for retaliation against the “Zionist­
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

31 

Crusader war [that] is without conscience” and which had torn “Muslim 

bodies in Gaza and Lebanon,” as well as in Chechnya, Kashmir, 

Afghanistan, and Iraq. 

33 The pattern is consistent:  Al­Qaida’s view of war

is one in which it is taking morally defensible action against western 

assaults against Muslims worldwide.

· The war al­Qaida fights will be an intelligent war, predicated on 

their own strategic culture analysis.  This has two components.  The first is 

that al­Qaida has and will continue to study western history, institutions, 

management principles, military doctrine, and so on.  Moreover, it has also 

studied western open­source counter­terrorism doctrine.  Captured al­ 

Qaida documents, as well as al­Qaida pronouncements, have show a

remarkable knowledge of everything from the American political process 

and economic concerns, to the U.S. military’s pre­positioning of supplies 

in the lower Persian Gulf and its disposition of forces.  The second 

component is al­Qaida’s ability to show flexibility with respect to its own 

methods, doing a fairly rigorous analysis of its failures and adapting new 

approaches.  One such is al­Suri’s Observations Concerning the Jihadi

Experience in Syria.  Another is The Story of the Arab Afghans From the

Entry to Afghanistan until the Final Departure with the Taliban, serialized 

in Al­Sharq Al­Awsat in December 2004.  Among other observations, 

(putative author) Abu Walid al­Masri recalls Osama’s false assumption 

that the United States could withstand only two or three decisive blows and 

that 9/11 should prove decisive. 34

Of particular interest is al­Qaida ideologue Abu Bakr Naji, especially 

in light of his clear commitment to a strategic culture analysis of the West.  He merits quoting at length.  We urge that most of the leaders of the Islamic movement be

military leaders or have the ability to fight in the ranks, at the very 

least. Likewise, we also urge that those leaders work to master

political science just as they would work to master military 

science....  Political action is very important and dangerous, such
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

32 

that one of them said:  ‘A single political mistake (leads to) a

result that is worse than one hundred military mistakes.’ Despite

the hyperbole in this statement, it is true to the extent that it

clarifies the seriousness of a political mistake.... The interest in 

understanding the rules of the political game and the political 

reality of the enemies and their fellow travelers and then 

mastering disciplined political action through sharia politics and 

opposing this reality is not less than the importance of military 

action, especially if we consider that the moment of gathering the 

fruit—a moment which is considered the recompense for the

sacrifices offered by the mujahids during long decades—is a

moment resulting from a political strike and a decisive political 

decision. Thus, the most important of their political principles is

the principle of (self) interest. Their principle absolutely does not 

submit to any moral value; rather, all the other principles are

subordinate to it—friendship or enmity, peace or war—and are all

determined according to (self) interest.  The politicians of the West summarize that in a slogan which says, 

‘There is no eternal enmity in politics and no eternal friendship; 

rather, there are eternal interests.’”35

Naji’s closing paraphrase of Lord Palmerston’s dictum from the middle

Nineteenth Century  should come as no surprise.  Al­Qaida, it seems, is 

determined to follow Sun Tzu’s non­negotiable principle of victory 

through knowledge, and it has done its homework rather thoroughly, to 

include reading primers of international relations. 

On some level, al­Qaida has sought to formalize strategic analysis, as 

the Encyclopedia of Jihad makes clear.  “The mission of [al­Qaida’s 

strategic intelligence unit] is gathering, organizing, and distributing 

military information on the strategic level of the [target] country.  Its goal 

is to know the country’s military, political, economical and social 

capabilities and to predict its intentions, in order to work confronting all

possibilities.”36 In application, the knowledge so gained can have

implementation at the strategic or tactical level, and may be used in lethal 

or non­lethal ways.  One example that reflects multiple applications of

strategic intelligence is al­Qaida’s tracking of the Bush administration’s
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

33 

awarding of Iraqi reconstruction contracts, announced in December 2003. 37

Within a day, one publication, Al­Quds al­Arabi, editorialized 

When we warned that US aggression against Iraq was aimed at 

achieving two important goals, to loot Iraq's economy and wealth 

and to serve Israeli interests and remove any real Arab threats to 

the racist Jewish state, there were those who accused us of

exaggeration....  Yesterday the US president, George Bush,  announced that bids for contracts in Iraqi reconstruction will first 

be given to US companies, then other companies affiliated to 

allied countries which sent their forces to Iraq, risked the lives of

their people, and served in the US project....  The US decision 

will...increase the world's hatred for the current arrogant US

administration. 38

Osama noted how the issue of the contracts awards could be exploited, and 

he responded to the wedge moment with non­lethal propaganda:  “This

war makes millions of dollars for big corporations, either weapons 

manufacturers or those working in the reconstruction [of Iraq], such as 

Halliburton and its sister companies....  It is crystal clear who benefits 

from igniting the fire of this war and this bloodshed:  They are the 

merchants of war, the bloodsuckers who run the policy of the world from 

behind the scenes.”39 And an al­Qaida unit in Saudi Arabia, the al­Quds 

Brigade, formed quite lethal plans.  It spent some months reconnoitering a

western housing compound where Halliburton employees lived, then 

attacked it in May 2004 with a small team, killing 22 persons.  The next 

month, the leader of the mission, Fawwaz al­Nashami, described the

“Battle of Khobar” in an interview with Sawt al­Jihad [Voice of Jihad].  The battle was, Fawwaz said, part of the larger plan to purge the Arabian 

peninsula of ritual impurities by attacking western contractors.  It also 

provided the occasion to appeal to Muslims working in the compound to 

embrace a salafist vision of Islam. 40

As part of this intelligent war, al­Qaida understands its words and 

actions have multiple audiences.  Its methods in war will be guided, to 

some degree, by an appreciation for and an adherence to classical Islamic
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

34 

strictures about jus ad bellum and jus in bello.  As we note above, al­Qaida

routinely positions itself as fighting a defensive war.  But even if one

considers all such elaborations as tendentious, al­Qaida is keenly aware of

its public image.  In an undated letter to Mullah Omar, Osama averred that 

gaining the upper hand in the “information war” (al­Harb al­ilamiah)

represents 90% of the preparation for battle. 41 And Abu Mus c ab al­Suri 

has underscored the importance of propagandists to articulate the 

movement’s objectives and legitimate use of violence. 42

Much of al­Qaida literature is, therefore, quite taken with examining 

the reactions of various Muslim publics.  For instance, al­Qaida attacks in 

Saudi Arabia that caused extensive casualties among Muslims (the Battle

of Khobar did not) proved counter­productive, and after a year of

harrowing attacks, they suddenly ceased.  Al­Qaida clearly noted the

negative public reaction, one which the Saudi royal family was quick to 

exploit, and it curtailed its attacks.  Another example is the November

2005 hotel attacks that killed over 50, to include members of a wedding 

party.  Zarqawi offered an extensive apologia, saying that the hotels were a

den of crusaders and Zionists, and that members of the wedding party were

emphatically not the target.  He then added,  The obscenity and corruption spread [by the Jordanian 

government] have turned Jordan into a quagmire of utter profanity 

and debauchery, and anyone who has seen the hotels, the houses 

of entertainment, the dance parties, the wine bars, and the tourist 

resorts in Aqaba, in the Dead Sea [region], and in other places is 

wrenched with sorrow over what this family [i.e. the Jordanian 

royal family]—both its men and its women—has done to this

country, whose people are good. 43

In part, the concern about the violence is doctrinally driven.  Naji has 

written, “One should note that violence and coarseness must not transgress 

the limits of the Sharia and that one must pay heed to the benefit and harm 

(that results from) it, which the Sharia considers to be, in the rules of jihad, 

as one of the most important subjects for the guidance of creation, if not
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

35 

the most important subject. 44 But al­Qaida is also intelligent and 

pragmatic.  It wants to avoid what Jarret Brachman and William McCants

term the “Shayma effect” after the botched assassination attempt on 

Egyptian Prime Minister, Atif Sidqi.  In the event, a young school girl 

(Shayma) was killed, and—as Zawahiri later noted—caused a propaganda

debacle for Egyptian Islamists.  In brief, al­Qaida is not blinded by zeal.  It 

will formulate plans carefully calibrated to exploit perceived weaknesses 

of the enemy and which will play well with Islamic audiences.

APPLYING TO WMD

When we turn to al­Qaida’s doctrine of WMD, the most salient factor

is that there is none.  This is not to say there are not references to 

acquisition and use.  There certainly are a number of adversions.  Typical 

are comments like these from Suleiman abu Gheith, al­Qaida spokesman, 

in June 2002:  “It is our right to fight them [the Americans] with chemical 

and biological weapons, so as to afflict them with the fatal maladies that 

have afflicted the Muslims because of [their] chemical and biological 

weapons.”45 Or this from Abu ‘Abdullah Al­Kuwaiti: “If the American 

people are ready to die as we are ready to die, then our combat groups 

along with our military, nuclear, and biological equipment will kill 

hundreds of thousands of people we don’t wish to fight.” 46 But measured 

against the very large output of al­Qaida pronouncements, references are

comparatively infrequent, as Reuven Paz points out, and when they do 

occur, it is most often to chemical munitions. 

47 Significantly, manuals like

Military Studies in the Jihad against the Tyrants fail to mention them at 

all.  There has also been vigorous deliberation within the al­Qaida shura

about the utility of WMD.  Perhaps the most important source is Abu 

Walid al­Masri, putative author of “The Story of the Arab Afghans from 

the Time of Arrival in Afghanistan until their Departure with the
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

36 

Taliban.”48 By his account, hawks within al­Qaida’s shura have pushed 

for authorization.  Most prominent among them was Abu Hafs al­Masri, 

until he was killed in a U.S. airstrike in November 2001.  Abu Hafs had 

served as the organization’s minister of defense and potential successor to 

Osama.  He and others in Al­Qaida argued they should try to obtain 

whatever they could of WMD for defense in a kind of Islamic MAD 

doctrine. 49 But others were deeply concerned about what they termed the

“genii in the bottle,” and they urged against acquisition.  They feared 

pulling heaven down upon their heads in a retaliatory strike by the West.  And thus what followed was extensive debate about ROE, targets, and 

jurisprudential questions concerning collateral damage.  Also notable is

that even the hawks described use in terms of deterrence, not first strike.  Moreover, according to Abu Walid, the majority agreed that use of WMD 

is a sensitive and very dangerous issue.  And in any event, he reported, al­ 

Qaida could likely obtain only quite primitive weapons. 

50

Osama’s own position seems ambiguous.  On the one hand, Abu 

Walid reported that the al­Qaida leader had wanted to obtain dirty bombs 

from the Russian arsenal.  Yet he also describes Osama as having blocked 

Abu Hafs from pursuing a WMD program. 51 When asked directly about 

chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons in an al­Jazeera interview in 

December 1998, Osama temporized, saying Israel and Christians had 

nuclear weapons capability.  He then added, “America knows today that 

Muslims [i.e., Pakistan] are in possession of such a weapon.”52 Osama

responded similarly in an interview that Time published the following 

month.  Asked about chemical and nuclear weapons, he replied, 

“Acquiring weapons for the defense of Muslims is a religious duty.  If I

have indeed acquired these weapons, then I thank God for enabling me to 

do so.  And if I seek to acquire these weapons, I am carrying out a duty.  It
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

37 

would be a sin for Muslims not to try to possess the weapons that would 

prevent the infidels from inflicting harm on Muslims.”53

Clearly, Osama did make some attempt to acquire such weapons.  One

especially notable testimony about Osama and al­Qaida’s interest in 

nuclear (or radiologic) weapons in particular is that of Jamal Ahmad al­ 

Fadl, the Sudanese national who defected from the organization in 1996 

and now lives under protective custody in the United States.  Al­Fadl had 

served as the money man in al­Qaida’s 1993 attempt to purchase uranium

in Sudan.  In the end, however, this deal, like others, proved 

unsuccessful. 54 It is also important to note that in February 2002, after

swift defeat of Taliban, U.S. officials searched military camps that Osama

and al­Qaida had used.  They found no WMD. 55

What should be apparent is that, despite its deliberations and even its 

attempts to obtain weapons materiel, al­Qaida has not elaborated a

consistent doctrine with respect to the use of WMD and nuclear weapons 

in particular.  Instead, where western analysts do find discussions about 

WMD, they discover contestation on the issues of acquisition and 

employment, a contestation that is carried on within the parameters of a

salafist Islamic narrative.  Moreover, al­Qaida discussions also proceed 

within a framework of certain perceptions about the character and 

operational code of the West.  None of this argues that al­Qaida will not 

again seek to acquire and employ WMD.  Unlike Fahd’s 2003 fatwa

authorizing use, there has been no counter fatwa among al­Qaida leaders or

clerics proscribing use. Use is clearly permissible.  But indiscriminate 

employment, merely for spectacular effect, is highly unlikely.  Al­Qaida’s 

aim is not operational effect.  It is to secure victory, and a victory with a

legitimacy understood in religious terms.  Because it is fighting an 

intelligent war, al­Qaida does consider the attitude continuum among 

fellow Muslims.  Indiscriminate slaughter would multiply the “Shayma
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

38 

effect” among their co­religionists.  That is true even when the victims are

non­Muslim, for jurists have long argued against the deliberate targeting of

non­combatants.  And there is scant evidence that al­Qaida’s argument that 

non­combatants are responsible for state actions, simply on the basis of 

having voted, has found traction among Islamic publics. 

Additionally, al­Qaida has shown a pragmatic side.  On the one hand,  Al­Qaida has authorized suicide attacks, for it can justify them as 

“martyrdom operations.”  But it realizes that indiscriminate use of WMD 

would likely bring devastating retaliation, and Afghanistan is a case in 

point.  On the other hand, U.S. successes in physically attacking the

Taliban and al­Qaida bases and in information warfare assaults on al­Qaida

communications networks, as well as freezing al­Qaida financial assets— 

all have limited the panoply of weapons the organization can acquire or

develop.  Thus, al­Qaida is existentially limited in what it can acquire or

develop, and jurisprudentially limited in what it would use and in what 

manner, if acquired.  A jihadist attack, like politics, is the art of the 

possible.  Based, then, on al­Qaida’s history and strategic doctrine, and in 

view of pragmatic limits on what may be acquired and/or weaponized, the

following summary of al­Qaida’s WMD use seems warranted. Limited employment of radiologic or chemical weapons, outside 

Muslim countries, is clearly possible and, if acquired, may even be

probable.  Employment within Muslim countries is much less likely.  Use of 

weapons that could be characterized as causing indiscriminate mass 

slaughter seems implausible, both for pragmatic and jurisprudential 

reasons.

But the debate about al­Qaida and WMD cannot end there.  What “al­ 

Qaida prime” may do and what al­Qaida franchises may do are separate 

questions.  The threat from the former, in many ways, is decreasing; 

threats from the latter, increasing.  In the future, we should expect al­
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

39 

Qaida’s function to move more toward providing ideology, 

encouragement, and a kind of perverse legitimacy to field units which are

operating with increasing autonomy.  We ought, then, to be speaking of the

WMD threat from al­Qaidas.  It is they, far away from the destruction of

the mountainous hideaways of Afghanistan, who will be importing both a

salafist ideology and new weapons to confront their enemies.  Yet that was 

the original vision inspired by Shaykh Abdullah Azzam, in any event.  Al­ 

Qaida would be only a base.  He never intended that the jihadists remain 

there.  Today, his vision is being fulfilled.  Al­Qaida is no longer the chief

threat.  Al­Qaidas are.  It is they, in their local contexts, that could more

easily threaten the West with WMD, and it is their own adapted narratives 

the West must more rigorously study.

NOTES

1 The author would like to thank Dr. James Smith, Director of the Institute for 

National Security Studies, for making possible participation in the “Violent

Non­State Actors, Strategic Culture, and WMD: The al­Qaida Case”

conference, held in McLean, VA, 26­27 June 2006. Many of the ideas

presented here reflect the vigorous and open dialogue of the conferees. More

especially, the author is grateful to the Institute and its host organization, the

United States Air Force Academy, for providing a home during sabbatic leave

from Baylor University, fall 2005. Additionally, the author gladly 

acknowledges the close reading and numerous critical suggestions of Ms. Amanda Mitchell, a very perceptive student of international relations and 

Middle East politics at Baylor University. As generally happens with 

academic papers, any merits this study possesses must be attributed, at least in 

part, to the suggestions, encouragement, and critique of others; any flaws, to 

the author himself.

2 Tiina Tarvainen, “Al­Qaeda and WMD: A Primer,” Terrorism Monitor, 2 

June, 2005.

3 An earlier and useful overview of this analytic approach may be found in 

Colin Gray, “Comparative Strategic Culture,” Parameters (Winter 1984): 26­ 

33. A recent attempt to assess the current status of the field of strategic studies

is found in “Comparative Strategic Culture: Conference Report” issued by the

Center for Contemporary Conflict and available at

http://www.ccc.nps.navy.mil/events/recent/ComparativeStrategicCultureSep05
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

40 

_rpt.asp. An exceptionally vigorous critique of the approach is that of Alastair 

Johnston, “Thinking About Strategic Culture,” International Security (Spring 

1995): 33­64. While not discounting the concept as an analytic tool, Johnston 

does look to specify the term and to suggest ways of making its methodology 

more rigorous and its hypotheses falsifiable. My approach here is indebted to 

his discussion, as will be readily apparent.

4 The intact psychology of al­Qaida members is a key conclusion of the work 

of Marc Sageman. See particularly his Understanding Terror Networks

(Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania, 2004).

5 A number of sources may be cited for this background on Iraq’s creation. To 

cite only two, Glenn Frankel gives a concise account in his “Lines in the

Sand” in Micah Sifry and Christopher Cerf, eds., The Gulf War Reader (New

York: Random House, 1991), 16­20. David Fromkin, A Peace to End All

Peace (New York: Holt, 1989) gives a superb review, focusing especially on 

Churchill, passim, but particularly 191­92. On the orchestration of Feisal’s “popular” selection and reception, see Fromkin, 506­08. The Parsons quote is

in Frankel, 18.

6 On the concept of ethnic markers, see Sami Zubaida, Islam, the People, and 

the State (New York: Tauris, 1993).

7 An important self­description that salafists use is “vanguard,” a term made

popular by Sayyid Qutb in his major work, Milestones. The idea here is that

Islam has fallen into moral decay, and a committed group of true believers (the

vanguard, talic a) will restore it to its early purity.

8 Again I note my debt, especially in terminology, to Johnston, cited supra. The idea of narrative as cognitive roadmap, I develop more fully in “From

Gilgamesh to Fatwas,” War, Literature, and the Arts (forthcoming in 2007). At the same time, I acknowledge an implicit debt to Harvard researcher Steven 

Pinker, especially in his The Blank Slate, and the idea that cultures are

epiphenomena and that what is truly universal is the psychological unity of the

race.

9 An older but still useful exposition of the classical doctrine is Majid 

Khadduri, War and Peace in the Law of Islam (Baltimore, Johns Hopkins

Press, 1955), passim. For a discussion of the origins and nuances of jihad, see

Jerry M. Long, “Jihad,” in The Encyclopedia of Religious Freedom (New

York: Routledge, 2003).

10 For a good overview of the topic, see John Kelsay, Islam and War

(Louisville: Westminster, 1993). Also valuable is Ann Elizabeth Mayer, “War 

and Peace in the Islamic Tradition and International Law” in Just War and 

Jihad, eds. John Kelsay and James T. Johnson (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991): 195­226.
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

41 

11 For an indication of the scope of that discussion among Islamic scholars, see

the primary documents collected in Rudolph Peters, Jihad in Classical and 

Modern Islam (Princeton: Marcus Wiener, 1993).

12 This is especially important to note in connection with the fatwa issued by 

Nasir al­Fahd in May 2003 on the permissibility of WMD. The lengthy and 

carefully constructed fatwa follows the traditional pattern of posing and 

answering objections, drawing on the Quran, the hadith, and the writings of 

other scholars. But the claims of some western analysts notwithstanding (to 

include the writer quoted at the start of this article), Fahd’s pronouncement

does not settle all. On an issue of this magnitude, several prominent and 

respected scholars would have to concur if the community were to have

consensus. But that hasn’t happened, and there is a curious lack of reference

among other leading Islamists to Fahd on this point. To see the degree of 

contestation there may be on critical issues, see Yvonne Haddad, “Operation 

Desert Storm and the War of the Fatwas” in Islamic Legal Interpretations: 

Muftis and their Fatwas, ed. Muhammad Khalid Masud, et. al. (Cambridge:

Harvard University Press, 1996): 297­309.

13 The full text is in “The Sword Fell,” New York Times, 8 Oct 01.

14 Zawahiri forwarded this theme again in late July 2006. After discussing the

“Zionist­Crusader War” against Lebanon and Hezbollah, he concluded, “My 

Muslim nation, without a doubt it is clear to you now that the governments of 

the Arabic and Islamic countries are inefficient and conniving.... You are all

alone in the field.” Cited in “In Zawahiri’s Words: ‘We Will Unite,’” New 

York Times, 28 July 2006. Several weeks later, on the fifth anniversary of the

9/11 attacks, Zawahiri continued the theme, accusing Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and 

Jordan of supporting Israeli hostility against Lebanon. Cairo, he said, had 

made a “graveyard” of the Arab’s joint defense pact. Al­Jazeera on­line

(Arabic), 12 September 2006.

15 Notably, on the first anniversary of the London train bombing, al­Qaida

released a new tape with commentary and voiceover, which included the

martyr statement of Shehzad Tanweer recorded prior to the attack. In his

voiceover, Zawahiri pointed out, “The names of the station [sic] that were

targeted have significance, both symbolically and in terms of morale, for the

Crusader West,” apparently referring to the bombing of the King’s Cross—  Tavistock line. The statement is in MEMRI, 11 July 2006.

16 An obvious example is the 1996 “Ladenese Epistle,” in which the assault of 

the West on Islam is made the foundation of the argument that follows for 

defensive war. It is even more explicit in Osama’s declaration in October 

2001 in which he argued that 9/11 was simply retaliation for “80 years of 

humiliation” (see “The Sword Fell,” cited supra). Zawahiri and others share

that analysis. What lacks, however, is the sort of capacity for critical self­ 

reflection that one finds in the writings of, say, Qutb and Mawdudi, who offer
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

42 

Muslim jeremiads. Self­reflection seems to have returned in Abu Mus’ab al­  Suri, however, whose “Observations Concerning the Jihadi Experience in 

Syria” is remarkable on this account. See the summary available in Brachman 

and McCants, Stealing al­Qaida’s Playbook, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/Stealing%20Al­Qai%27da%27s%20Playbook%20­­ 

%20CTC.pdf.

17 Zawahiri writes of the impact of the 1967 defeat in his Knights Under the

Banner of the Prophet. “The jihad movement realized that the woodworm had 

begun to eat the idol [Nasser, as leader of secular Arab nationalism] until he

became weak because of the effects of the setback and he fell to the ground 

amid the bewilderment of his priests and the horror of his worshippers.... The

death of [Nasser] was not the death of one person but also the death of his

principles, which proved their failure on the ground of reality, and the death of 

a popular myth that was broken on the sands of Sinai.” Al­Sharq Al­Awsat, 4 

December 2001. Thereafter, Zawahiri writes, an invigorated militant Islam

developed in the void.

18 It is significant, in this context, that the Egyptian military’s successful plan 

to breach the Bar Lev defensive barrier and cross into the Sinai was code­  named Operation Badr, explicitly referencing an early Muslim victory over the

Makkans in 624 C.E.

19 See, for instance, the striking use of this imagery in the al­Qaida attack on 

western compounds in Saudi Arabia in May 2004, dubbed the “Khobar 

Operation.” The text describing the assault is available at

http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=subjects&Area=jihad&ID=SP73104.

20 This post war period, we will argue, is the single most important precursor 

to Osama’s attack on 9/11. His reading was that the house of war had overrun 

the house of peace. His fatwa in 1998 can only be understood against this

backdrop. For more background on Osama’s appeal to the Saudi royal family, see Yossef Bodansky, Bin Laden: The Man Who Declared War on America

(New York: Random House, 2001): 28­31; and reporting in The Jordan Times, 8 November 2001. For a coolly­reasoned and powerfully stated Arab view on 

the U.S. presence and how provocative it might be, see Mohamed Heikal,

Illusions of Triumph: An Arab View of the Gulf War (London: HarperCollins, 1992), 333­34.

21 I am indebted here and in much of the discussion that follows to Brachman 

and McCants’ Stealing al­Qa’ida’s Playbook, and to the collection of primary 

materials in the “Harmony” database on the Combating Terrorism Center’s

website, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

22 Milestones, 7, 8, 9. Emphasis added.

23 “The Sword Fell.”
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

43 

24 Al­sharq al­Awsat, 23 January 2005.

25 Cited in MEMRI, 11 April 2003.

26 Available on the Combating Terrorism Center’s website, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

27 His Observations Concerning the Jihadi Experience in Syria is excerpted in 

CTC’s Stealing al­Qaida’s Playbook, http://www.ctc.usma.edu/.

28 Cited in Messages to the World, ed. Bruce Lawrence (New York: Verso, 2005), 74.

29 Ed. Jerrold Post (Maxwell AFB, AL: USAF Counterproliferation Center,

n.d.), 15. The Encyclopedia of Jihad is even more direct: “Islam permits the

killing and assassination of those who have wronged Allah, his Prophet, or 

Muslims, from among his worst enemies, without dispute.” 514.

Unfortunately, the Encyclopedia is no longer available on the CTC website.

30 Management, 242­43.

31 MEMRI, 12 June 2002.

32 MEMRI, 11 July 2006.

33 “We Will Unite to Fight,” New York Times, 28 July 2006.

34 Al­Sharq Al­Awsat, 8 December 2006.

35 Naji, Management of Barbarism, 85­88, passim. Emphasis added.

36 Jihad, 120.

37 The Bush administration’s decision to award contracts to key members of 

the “coalition of the willing” is described in “Bush Defends Barring Nations

from Iraq Deals,” New York Times, 12 December 2003.

38 Cited in the BBC on­line, 12 December 2003.

39 MEMRI, 15 April 2004.

40 The story is reported in MEMRI, 15 June 2004.

41 The Arabic original is at http://www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/AFGP­2002­600321­ 

Orig.pdf. Interestingly, the anonymous author of The Story of the Arab 

Afghans considered Osama to be “maniacally obsessed with the international

media,” a disaster for the Taliban. Al­Sharq Al­Awsat, 10 December 2004.

42 Stealing al­Qaida’s Playbook, 17.

43 MEMRI, 8 December 2005.

44 Management, 76.

45 MEMRI, 12 June 2002.
Long—Strategic Culture, Al­Qaida, and WMD

44 

46 http://www.ctc.usma.edu/aq/AFGP­2002­001120­Trans.pdf. The Center for 

Nonproliferation Studies has done a commendable yeoman’s task in compiling 

an extensive list of references to WMD, the preponderance being to CBW. It

is available at http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/other/sjm_cht.htm The difficulty, of 

course, is verifying the reliability of the sources and many prove simply 

chimerical—as with the allegation in al­Majalla in 2002 that Osama had 

purchased 48 “suitcase nukes” from the Russian mafia. After the successful

U.S. attack on al­Qaida strongholds in Afghanistan, the number of reported 

attempts to obtain nuclear or radiologic materials for a dirty bomb dropped 

precipitously. See the chart referenced just above.

47 See Reuven Paz, “Global Jihad and WMD,” in Current Trends in Islamist

Ideology, Vol. 2 (September 2005), pub. by The Hudson Institute in 

Washington D.C., eds. Hillel Fradkin, Husain Haqqani, and Eric Brown.

48 Al­Sharq al­Awsat serialized “The Story” beginning 8 December 2004.

Authorship is not certain, but I will refer to the author as “Abu Walid,” with 

that caveat. For an important examination of conflict within al­Qaida

leadership more generally, see Montasser al­Zayyat, The Road to al­Qaida,

trans. Ahmed Fekry and ed. Sara Nimis (London: Pluto Press, 2004).

49 Al­Sharq al­Awsat, 8 December 2004. In his 2003 fatwa authorizing use of 

WMD, al­Fahd makes something of the same point: “If the infidels can be

repelled from the Muslims only by using such weapons, their use is

permissible, even if you kill them without exception and destroy their tillage

and stock.” More recently, Abu Musc ab al­Suri has averred that WMD would 

offer “strategic symmetry.” Cited in Paz , “Global Jihad and WMD,” 83. The

author wishes to express gratitude to Dr. Jarrett Brachman and the Combating 

Terrorism Center at West Point for supplying a copy of the full fatwa of al­  Fahd.

50 Al­Sharq al­Awsat, 9 December 2004 

51 Al­Sharq al­Awsat, 8 December 2004 

52 The interview is available in Messages to the World, 65­94. This comment

is @ 72.

53 11 January 1999. Accessed on­line.

54 A useful catalog of several attempts is found at

http://cns.miis.edu/pubs/reports/binladen.htm.

55 “U.S. Analysts Find no Sign bin Laden Had Nuclear Arms,” NYT, 26 

February 2002.
The Taliban Insurgency and its Tribal Dynamics: An Analysis of

Shabnamah (Night Letters) 1

Thomas H. Johnson

BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT

This year (2006) has witnessed some of the fiercest and most sustained 

fighting in Afghanistan since the Taliban regime was toppled in November

2001.  Some analysts are now contending that the conflict situation in 

Afghanistan is a “stalemate” between Taliban insurgent forces and the 

United States and their NATO allies. 

2 There is no doubt the Taliban has 

staged a significant resurgence and is now a major threat to any semblance

of a stable and democratic Afghanistan.  The lack of state building and 

reconstruction in Afghanistan is clearly making the Taliban a viable

alternative to what is perceived as a failed Kabul regime.  British Capt. 

Leo Docherty, aide­de­camp to the commander of the British task force in 

southern Afghanistan, recently resigned his position describing the failed 

campaign against the Taliban a “textbook case of how to screw up a

counterinsurgency ... having a big old fight is pointless and just making 

things worse.”3

Afghanistan is on the verge of capsizing in a perfect storm of

insurgency that mimics operations and tactics witnessed in Iraq. 

4 The

danger of this eventuality is evidenced by recent statements by Mullah 

Dadullah, a primary spokesman for the current insurgency in Afghanistan 

and one of the most combative commanders of the Taliban.  Dadullah 

claims that the Taliban have registered 500 Afghans ready to be used as 

suicide bombers against “the intruders who have occupied our Islamic 

country” and that Taliban from outlying districts had entered cities to 

launch attacks.  “Now we are going to change our tactics, using a new 

weapon we did not have in the past, to target U.S. and allied forces....  We

will create a big problem for them.”5
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

46 

Why have the Taliban reemerged after being on the brink of falling 

into the dustbin of historical misfits?  What characteristics of this 

movement have allowed them to survive in a regional as well as 

international environment where powerful actors are determined to act 

towards their demise?  How can they gender the support of the Afghan 

population, the key center­of­gravity, for their agenda when the world’s 

remaining “superpower” is committed to their destruction?

Popular perceptions of the Taliban have been driven largely by images 

of bearded illiterates wearing shalmar kameez 

6

, toting Korans and guns 

and instituting draconian social policies while harboring global jihadists.  This perception of the Taliban, held both in academia and in policy circles, 

centers on the belief that the Taliban are primarily an obtuse, radical 

Islamist organization.  While there is salience to this argument, the Islamist 

element of the Taliban is simply that, an element of a complex historical, 

tribal, and cultural phenomenon of the Pashtuns.  The fact that the Taliban 

consist primarily of Pashtuns from the Ghilzai (or Ghalji) nation, 7would 

suggest that in order to truly understand the Taliban and their motivations 

we need to come to grips with the anthropology and sociology of the

Ghilzai tribal nation, foundations that most studies concerning the Taliban 

virtually ignore.  The research reported here will attempt to make sense of one

dimension of the Taliban “culture” or world view and its implications for

the insurgency that is gripping Afghanistan.  Specifically this paper will 

assess Taliban shabnamah, commonly referred to as “night letters.”

Particular attention will be devoted to an examination of narratives 

portrayed in these shabnamah; before doing this, however, it is first 

necessary to frame the Taliban contextually.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

47

The Taliban’s Ghilzai Connections

The roots of the Taliban are found in the mujahideen efforts against

the Soviet invasion and occupation of Afghanistan.  From the hundreds of

resistance groups which emerged to challenge the Soviet invasion and 

occupation, the Pakistani Directorate for Inter­Services Intelligence (ISI)—  w who played a central role arming and training of Afghan resistance

groups—recognized seven Sunni parties and established offices for them 

through which to channel covert support.  Although most of these

resistance groups had a strong religious ethos, the groups were organized 

primarily along ethno­linguistic and tribal lines.  Significantly, while three

parties were explicitly led by a Ghilzai, all the “leaders” of the Peshawar

parties except for one had Ghilzai connections.  Hekmatyar, Sayyaf, and 

Nabi are Ghilzais; Khalis is from a neighboring eastern Pushtun tribe (the 

Khugiani); Gailani and Mujaddidi are from immigrant Sufi families whose

religious and political links are largely with Ghilzais.  Only Rabbani has 

no intimate connection with Ghilzais.  None of the Peshawar parties were

led by the Durranis, who were deliberately marginalized by the ISI. 8 The

importance of these ethno­linguistic roots of the Taliban in the mujahideen 

movement should not be underestimated.  These ethno­linguistic and tribal 

pedigrees continue to play a significant role today.  The Taliban primarily consists of rural Pashtuns from the Ghilzai 

nation 

9

with some support from the Kakar tribe of the Ghurghusht nation.  An examination of senior Taliban leadership illustrates that most come

from the Hotaki tribe of the Ghilzai. 10

The Ghilzai, who are descendants of the great nomad clans 

(powindah) of Sulaiman Khel, and the Aka Khel are the largest Afghan 

tribal confederation that includes the tribes of Sulaiman Khel, Ali Khel, 

Aka Khel, Taraki, Nasirs, Tokhis, Hotaks, and Khototi. 11 The Ghilzais are

concentrated in an area spanning Ghazni and Kalat­i­Ghilzai eastward into
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

48 

western Pakistan, but are predominantly a nomadic, segmentary group 

unlike the Durrani who can be found in permanent settlements. Wikipedia

characterizes a segmentary lineage society by suggesting that 

the close family is the smallest and closest segment, and will 

generally stand with each other.  That family is also a part of a

larger segment of more distant cousins, who will stand with each 

other when attacked by outsiders.  They are then part of larger

segments with the same characteristics.  Basically, brothers will 

fight against cousins, unless outsiders come, and then they will 

join together. An old Arab saying expresses this idea: “Me against

my brothers, me and my brothers against my cousins, me and my 

cousins against the world.”12

To understand the Ghilzai, it is important to first understand their 

tribal code known as Pashtunwali, which translates as “the way of the

Pashtun.”  As we will see below, Pashtunwali plays a critical role in 

Taliban night letter narratives. 

First and foremost, Pashtunwali is about honor (nang).  The Pashtun’s 

concept of honor is not derived from a western society’s modern definition 

of honor which is based on morality or justice, but rather from a close, 

unquestionable observance of Pashtunwali.  In the past, this difference has 

created a great deal of tension between Pashtuns, and particularly the 

Ghilzai, and those states attempting to establish their own rule of law.  The

same type of dynamic is arguably in place with the Taliban.  This is

reflected by their complete abhorrence for the Karzai Regime’s attempts to 

institute Kabul’s interpretation of law and order.  The concept of justice is wrapped up in a Pashtun’s maintenance of his

honor.  Action which must be taken to preserve this honor; if such actions 

contradict or break the laws of a state this is would seem perfectly 

acceptable to a Pashtun.  In fact, his honor would demand it. 13

“[Pashtunwali is] an uncompromising social code so profoundly at odds 

with Western mores that its application constantly brings one up with a
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

49 

jolt.”14 A Pashtun must maintain the code to maintain his honor and to 

maintain his identity as a Pashtun. 15

Though there are many elements that comprise this tribal code, the 

main tenets of Pashtunwali include badal, nanawatai, and melmastia. Badal, often considered the strongest pillar of Pashtunwali, demands that a 

Pashtun seek revenge or retaliation for any slight against his stature, most 

often regarding his gold, woman and land (zar, zan, and zamin).  “This is a

stringent code, a tough code for tough men, who of necessity live tough 

lives,” according to Louis Dupree.  “Honor and hospitality, hostility and 

ambush, are paired in the [Pashtun] mind.  The values of [Pashtunwali] and 

of the Muslim religion, modified by local custom, permeate in varying 

degrees all [Pashtun] groups.”16 Dupree’s statement neatly sums up the

relationship between a Pashtun and Pashtunwali.  It establishes the 

importance of the code by explaining how the values it creates within 

Pashtun society are encompassed in nearly every aspect of an individual 

Pashtun’s life and how its observance gives the individual his identity.  Pashtunwali defines both action and reaction to most circumstances of

social interaction.  Tribesmen share the burden for revenging a wronged 

tribal member and Ghilzais have a tendency to stereotype themselves and 

each other in terms of customs, dress, appearance, and language.  Much of the Ghilzai traditional tribal area is near the Durand Line

which is a largely ungoverned space of the Afghanistan­Pakistan border

area—an area where Pashtun and Baluchi societies (as well as some

others) with deeply entrenched tribal customs live outside or resist both 

Afghanistan’s and Pakistan’s rule of law.  This ungoverned tribal space has 

traditionally witnessed challenges to both state’s authority and their 

exclusive, legitimate right to violence.  Presently the Ghilzai are

widespread across Afghanistan occupying the high plateaus north of

Qandahar (Qalat­e­Ghilzai) and extending eastwards towards the Suleiman
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

50 

Mountains, westwards towards the Gul Koh range, and to the North of the

Kabul River.  Most Ghilzai are Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi School and 

are usually devout to their faith.  As suggested above, much of the original Taliban leadership, 

including Mullah Mohammed Omar, comes from the Hotaki tribe.  The

Ghilzais Hotaki under Mir Wais Ghilzai achieved historical fame as the

liberators of Qandahar from Safavid control in 1709.  In 1722 the Hotaki 

served as the leading tribe in the invasion of Persia and destruction of the 

Persian Empire. 17 The importance, remembrance and implications of such 

proud history in tribal Afghanistan are dynamics that stupefy many 

western analysts. 

It is important to remember that the Ghilzai held power in Afghanistan 

in the 18 th Century and for a time even possessed the throne of Isfahan 

(Persia).  The Ghilzai regime was ended by Nadir Shah in 1737.  After the

assassination of Nadir Shah in 1747, the first “modern” government was 

established in Qandahar by the Afghans as they elected Ahmed Shah 

Durrani as their ruler.  The Ghilzai have traditionally held a strong 

animosity towards the Durrani Pashtuns, who took power from the Ghilzai 

and have held it almost continuously for the last 300 years. 

18 The

Durranis have provided ALL of Afghanistan’s modern kings, a fact not 

lost to the Ghilzai.  Only twice in Afghan history have the Ghilzai seized 

national power from the Durranis: in 1978 after a coup d’ etat against

Mohammed Daoud by Marxist military officers who immediately handed 

over power to the Marxist Peoples Democratic Party of Afghanistan 

(PDPA) leader Nur Mohammed Taraki 19and again in 1996, when Mullah

Omar came to power.  For the Ghilzai the Durranis, the tribe of Hamid 

Karzai, have been their hated archrivals since the demise of Mir Wais

Ghilzai and his empire.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

51 

The divisions between Durrani and Ghilzai Afghans have been at the

root of centuries of conflict and intrigue in Afghanistan.  Such issues were

intimately involved in the demographics of Peshawar politics during the

anti­jihad.  In fact, a case can be made that the politics of the Afghan war

was a virtual Ghilzai affair.  Khalq's Ghilzai leaders, Hafizullah Amin and 

Muhammad Taraki, began the process with the 1978 coup.  The Afghan 

military forces were dominated by Khalqi officers, many of whom were

Ghilzai.  Babrak Karmal (with Durrani connections) was replaced by 

Najibullah, one of the few Parchamis with Ghilzai roots.  Except for

Babrak Karmal, the great Durrani Pushtun confederation had little 

representation on either side of the conflict.  Khalqi members of Peoples’ 

Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA) were committed to break the

established tradition of Durrani rule. 20 Some spoke of the Marxist 

usurpation and the war as Ghilzai revenge against Durrani dominance.  On 

the resistance side, as suggested above, nearly all of the key mujhadeen 

parties were led or had strong ties to the Ghilzai.  Ethnic rivalry, perhaps 

more than Islamic ideology, was even responsible for the refusal of the

Peshawar parties to accept Zahir Shah into mujahideen politics. 

21

The Taliban insurgency of today is just the most recent manifestation 

of Ghilzai­Durrani rivalry—with the majority of the Durranis supporting 

the Hamed Karzai regime and the majority of the Ghilzais supporting the

Taliban. 22

The Ghilzai have the well­earned reputation of being cruel, fearless 

fighters.  They were central Afghan belligerents against the British in all

three of Anglo­Afghan Wars.  They were especially prominent participants

in the military disasters that confronted the British concluding the first 

(1839­1842) and second (1878­1881) wars where the British military 

suffered colossal disasters.  The Ghilzai have also revolted repeatedly 

against Muhammadzai Durrani regimes in 1801, 1883, 1886, and 1937.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

52 

Each time the Ghilzai were eventually suppressed by the Durranis but only 

with great difficulty.  The importance of the Ghilzai to the Taliban insurgency is illustrated 

by Figure 1.  The shaded sections of the map of Afghanistan in Figure 1 

represent those areas politically controlled by the Taliban as of August

2006 (with many other areas significantly contested).  These areas include

the northern districts of Qandahar Province, the northeastern districts of

Helmand Province, most of Oruzgan and Zabol Provinces, and districts in 

Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak and Logar Provinces.  The inset map in Figure 1

Figure 1: Pashtun Tribal Areas and Key Insurgent Strongholds, 2006 

DURRANI 

GHILZAI  KARLANRI

Rough Sketch: 

Tribal Areas

SARBANI 

GHURGUSHT
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

53 

represents a rough sketch of the tribal areas of Pashtun confederations.  If

one compares the inset of the tribal areas in Afghanistan with the large

swath of Taliban political control, it is evident that the most intense area of

the insurgency action today is the area dominated by the various Ghilzai 

tribes. 

23

The Taliban’s Islamic Component

The Taliban initially represented a rise to power of the mullahs, at the

expense of both tribal leaders and mujahideen commanders.  Many 

mujahideen commanders, especially those from Hisb­e­Islami (Khalis) and

Harakat­i­Inqilab­i­Islami (Nabi Muhammadi) were later absorbed by the

Taliban. 24 The Taliban were significantly influenced by the teachings of

Deobandi Islam in Pakistani seminars and madrassas, especially the

Jaamia Haqqania at Chaman and Akora Khattack. 25 The Pakistani version 

of the Deobandi schools in Afghan refugee camps were for the most part 

run by in­experienced and semi­literate mullahs associated with Pakistan's

Jamiat­i­Ulema Islami (JUI) party.  The Taliban’s religious orientation is a radical interpretation of

Deobandi Islam. 26 Deobandi Islam, a conservative Islamic orthodoxy, 

follows a Salafist egalitarian model that seeks to emulate the Islamic 

tradition of the days of the Prophet Mohammed.  The Deobandi philosophy 

can be traced back to its founding at Dar ul­Ulum in Deoband, India, in 

1867.  This Sunni Islamic movement was originally established in 

response to British colonial rule in India.  While not officially supported or

sanctioned until President Zia ul Haq assumed control of the Pakistani 

government in 1977, Deobandi madrassas have flourished across South 

Asia for over a century.  The Deobandi interpretation of Islamic teachings 

is presently widely practiced in Pakistan with the JUI being its primary 

political proponent.  Saudi funds in combination with a lack of

appreciation on the part of the mullahs brought a radical Deobandi agenda
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

54 

to madrassas and their curricula. 27 Deobandi militants share the Taliban's 

restrictive view of women, and regard the Shia as non­Muslim.  While in 

power the Taliban had a deliberate anti­Shia program against

Afghanistan’s ethnic Hazara population, who are predominantly Shia, and 

led numerous massacres against them resulting in the deaths of tens of 

thousands of Hazaras. 

28

In summary, the Taliban are largely a Ghilzai movement that was 

created from Pakistani refugee camps and Deobandi madrassas with 

considerable help of the Pakistani government as well as Pakistan's Jamiati­Ulema Islami. Many of the Taliban's leaders and most of the Taliban 

foot soldiers were educated in these refugee camps where they had fled 

with millions of other Afghans after the Soviet invasion.  The Taliban 

imposed an extremely repressive, sectarian Islamist regime on the Afghan 

people, barring women from work.  In 1996 the Taliban, under the

leadership of Mullah Muhammad Omar, seized control of Kabul and 

implemented a strict interpretation of Islamic law.  The Taliban later

changed the name of Afghanistan to the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 29,  with Mullah Omar, who had previously assumed the religious title of Emir 

of the Faithful (Amir­ul Momineen), as head of state.  There was a sixmember ruling council in Kabul—Afghanistan’s political capital—but 

ultimate authority for Taliban rule rested in the Taliban's inner Shura

(Council), located in the southern city of Qandahar—Afghanistan’s 

spiritual capital—and in Mullah Omar. 30

TALIBAN NARRATIVE ANALYSIS

Having introduced the tribal and Islamic foundations of Taliban, albeit

briefly, the next sections of this paper attempt to answer the question as to 

what the Taliban represent, at least as exemplified by the messages of their 

night letters.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

55 

Specifically, although much less ambitious or thorough, this analysis 

represents research in the spirit of David Edwards’ Heroes of the Age:

Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Border.  Using oral narratives and other

documentation, Edwards examined the lives of a variety of important 

Afghan figures to include Sultan Muhammad Khan (a tribal chief), Amir 

Abdur Khan (The “Iron Amir” of Afghanistan), Najmuddin Akhundzada

(the Mullah of Hadda) as well as the “the mad Fakir of Swat.” 31 His 

sophisticated and fascinating use of narratives and stories to uncover

cultural artifacts and the underlying structure of the “moral systems” of

these Afghan characters has served as the impetus and guide for the 

research presented below.  The following sections will assess Taliban “night letters” in an effort 

to unravel what the Taliban represent.  Night letters have been a traditional 

and common instrument of Afghan religious figures, jihadists, and rebels

to encourage people, especially (but not exclusively) rural populations, to 

oppose both state authority and regulations.  Dupree in his seminal work 

on Afghanistan suggests that such “framing” instruments, often in the form 

of folklore, performed a variety of significant functions to include “social 

control” where individuals are told by illustration what they should or

should not do and what rewards or penalties they will incur for those not 

following these norms. 

32 As will be demonstrated below, Taliban

shabnamah serve the same purpose. Some Semantic and Theoretical Nuances of Culture and Narratives

A popular impression of culture is to refer to social practices that are

peculiar to a region or people. 33 For example such an impression might 

guide attempts to understand Pashtun culture by assessing social mores 

such as “only serve, touch or eat food with right hand” or “never inquire

about wives or daughters unless you are close friends.”  While interesting 

and important such social traditions are not the focus of this paper. 34 For
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

56 

the purposes of this paper, culture is best defined by Franz Boas, an early 

twentieth century German cultural anthropologist, who suggested that 

culture is “the system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviours, and 

artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with 

one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through 

learning.”35 This definition highlights several important concepts that will 

be central for our assessment of the Taliban.  First, culture is something 

that is shared between a self­identified group of people such as the

Taliban.  Second, culture has a psychological component as well as 

material manifestations (such as produced artifacts); and third, culture is

essentially adaptive and is transmitted through some process to others. 

Moreover, this operationalization suggests the importance of those artifacts

that are used to transmit Taliban world views, or to borrow Edward’s 

terminology, the underlying structure of the Taliban’s “moral systems” as 

portrayed by narratives. 

36 By a narrative I mean a mechanism, either

written or oral, by which the Taliban transmit their basic beliefs and 

concepts to others and represent their basic attitudes towards their 

environment. 

A narrative often represents a “story” and reflects foundational beliefs 

that articulate a group’s views toward the world.  As Mark Turner notes, 

“Story is a basic principle of mind.  Most of our experience, our

knowledge, and our thinking are organized as stories.”37 There is ample 

evidence that such artifacts have an effect on our capacity to recall events,  motivate action, modulate our emotional reactions to events, cue certain 

heuristics and biases, structure our problem­solving capabilities, and 

ultimately influence our very identity. 38 The framing of narratives will 

have critical importance as to how Taliban messages resonate to greater or

lesser degrees with target audiences. 

39
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

57 

Traditionally, story telling and narratives, especially oral history, have

been extremely important to the peoples of Afghanistan as well as to the

tribes in the Afghanistan­Pakistan border area.  Unique and pervasive

themes are found throughout Afghan poetry and literature that resonate 

with Afghans.  In many respects Afghanistan’s literature, arts, and music

have been critical dynamics for Afghan perseverance and adaptation.  Narratives have also served an important role in Afghan social 

mobilization, be it peaceful or violent.  This has been especially true when 

tribal collective actions have happened to intersect with political 

opportunities. 

40 During the British colonialism period, for example, anticolonial literature encouraged rebellion against the British and their 

patrons.  Night letters and oral narratives were also important instruments 

used by the mujahideen against the Soviet occupation. 41 Resistance

literature called for total opposition against the Soviets and their “puppet” 

Afghan leaders and support for the jihad to establish an Islamic order.  While a variety of means were used to deliver such messages to the

Afghan public a particularly powerful media, especially in the rural areas, 

were poems and music.  Below is an example of a widely circulated Pashtun folk poem that 

was used to transmit a narrative characterizing Soviet­installed Babrak 

Karmal as a traitor: 

O Babrak! Son of Lenin 

You do not care for the religion and the faith 

You may face your doom and 

May you receive a calamity, o! son of a traitor.  O! son of Lenin. 42

Narratives were also used by some mujahideen against King Zahir 

Shah and the royal family, as illustrated by a popular mujahideen folk song 

presented below.  This narrative contrasts the sacrifices made by the anti­ Soviet mujahideen with the exiled life of the Afghan King and how he had 

forsaken his legacy and ultimate rewards:
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

58 

You have none of your family fighting in Afghanistan,  Only the brave are here, you are

Enjoying life in Italy.  Wind of the morning, go tell Zahir Shah 

There is no halwa (sweetmeat) for you in Afghanistan 

The graves of your ancestors are here,  But there will be no grave for you in Afghanistan. 43

Night letters were a particularly useful mujahideen influence and 

intimidation technique.  In Nelofer Pazira’s biographical story called, A 

Bed of Red Flowers, she describes night letters used to coordinate shop 

closings or other activities designed to create solidarity among the anti­ 

Soviet Afghan population.  One activity coordinated by the nocturnal 

campaign was a concert of “Allahu Akbars” (God is Great) shouted from 

the rooftops of village houses.  This created a levee en masse effect 

towards the Soviet invaders and reminded the secular communists of the 

unifying power of Islam.  The next day we are tired but, as if concealing our night’s secret 

from the light of day, we don’t talk about Allahu Akbars, until 

Uncle Wahid arrives with the news.  In a silent rejection, all Kabul 

shopkeepers decided to keep their stores closed yesterday,  February 22, 1980; they designated the night as the time to voice

that day’s protest.  An anonymous nightly letter had been spread 

all over Kabul, asking people to cry Allahu Akbar after dark, says 

Uncle Wahid.  For the following two days, Kabul shops remain 

shut, and for the third night in a row we are standing on the roof, 

joining in this religious symphony.  Until dawn we chant, “God is

great.”  We are all so caught up in this rotation of rhythm and 

order that no one complains about the lack of sleep...this is our

welcome, Afghan­style, to the Soviet Invasion. 44

Taliban Night Letters 

45

The Taliban have adopted shabnamah as a well­tested, cost­effective

method of instruction and intimidation.  The Taliban regularly post such 

letters or leaflets at night warning of the “wrath” villages will face if they 

cooperate with US forces (the “Christian invaders”) or the Karzai regime

(“a US puppet”). 46 The Taliban rely on the educated populace to transmit
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

59 

the shabnamah to illiterate villagers.  Often these “letters” are pasted to the

walls of mosques and government buildings and promising death to 

anyone who defies their threats or instructions.  They are typically aimed 

at symbols of authority and supporters of the Karzai Government and often 

read as the following: “Once this government falls, we will be in power.  We will have your documents, your résumés, your names and your

addresses.  We will come and punish you.”

The Taliban have thus far been true to their word in sowing doubt and 

fear among Afghans. 

47 As reported by Time Magazine,  Night letters left across southern Afghanistan, the Taliban's 

stronghold, have slowed government services and brought 

reconstruction projects to a halt.  In Qandahar province, many 

police officers have quit, and after letters appeared threatening 

employees, two medical clinics were shut down.  In the past two 

months, insurgents have burned down 11 schools in the region.  Some of the attacks were presaged by night letters warning 

parents to keep their children home. 48

The Taliban night letters represent a strategic and effective instrument 

crafting poetic diatribes which appeal to the moral reasoning of Afghan 

villagers.  While many of the night letters represent overt intimidation, 

they also present important insights into who and what the Taliban 

represent.  The quality and use of these letters have impressed professional 

US Information and Psychological Operations (PYSOP) Officers who 

consider them “eloquent and impressive” and subsequently more effective

than the vast majority of US Information Operation artifacts. 49

Figure 2a presents a Taliban night letter distributed in Qandahar in 

2003 entitled “Message to the ‘Mujahed’ Afghan Nation!” and is a good 

example of the Taliban’s literal eloquence and poetic approach to 

persuasion that originated in historical intercultural communications found 

throughout Afghanistan and Iran. 50 This shabnamah references 

Afghanistan’s grand history and the threat that Americans and their cronies
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

60

Figure 2a: Qandahar 2003 Taliban Night Letter 1
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

61

Figure 2b: Translation of Taliban Night Letter 1 51

Message to the “Mujahed” (freedom fighter) Afghan 

Nation!

You have served Islam a great deal throughout history and 

have defeated the non­Moslems of the world. Your

ancestors such as Ahmad Shah Abdaali, Mahmood 

Ghaznawi, Shahaabuddin Ghori and other heroes have

recorded a great history in fight against non­Moslems, but 

it is a pity that today some of America­trained servants

under the name of bright­minded have destroyed the

honored history of Afghanistan. Today once again your

sons, clerics and Taliban and the faithful people, in these

circumstances are fighting against non­Moslems and are

serving Islam. If you don’t do any thing else, at least

support your Mujahed sons and do not be impressed by the

false propaganda of non­Moslem enemies. God forbid one

and half millions of martyrs of Jihad (religious Islamic 

fight) against Russians and one hundred thousand of

martyrs of Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan (martyr

Taliban) will ask you for the cost of their martyrdom, so 

we hope that you meet our expectations. They’re stopping 

the Islamic education and instead are teaching Christianity 

to your children.  Taliban never want to kill common 

civilians, but unfortunately some so­called Afghanis have

become the supporters of our enemies. Non­Moslems want 

to kill and pit Afghan against Afghan and in the name of

Talib they are attacking everybody and they are killing 

Afghans and destroying your houses and they are

destroying Islamic madrassahs in Afghanistan. They burn 

their Afghan arms and ammunitions. They want to make

Afghanistan as helpless as Palestine. You have seen that in 

all “Madrassas” (Islamic schools) nowadays they teach 

Christianity to your children. Once again, we request you 

not to support non­Moslems, otherwise you will have the 

whole responsibility here and hereafter. 

Be happy 

Poem 

I was so sad you laughed 

I was caring for Islam and you betrayed 

How do you call yourself an Afghan 

Instead of me you supported a non­Moslem
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

62 

pose to a historically great Islamic Afghan Government.  The proclamation 

is addressed to the “Mujahid People” of Afghanistan intimating the notion 

that the country itself is engaged in a jihad or lawful war against infidels

and an apostate government.  The label “Mujahid,” as used in this

narrative, does not apply solely to the Taliban but rather to the Afghan 

population as a whole.  The message suggests that all Afghans have a role 

this campaign against a common enemy of Islam and Afghans have an 

obligation to join the fight against the infidels.  The posting is a well­prepared, narrative reflecting on the “illustrious”

history of rule of three particular Afghan leaders who harnessed the power

of Islam.  The first “ancestor and hero” mentioned is Ahmad Shah Durrani 

(Abdali) the founder of the Sadozai dynasty of the Abdali who would 

establish the Durrani Afghan Empire in Qandahar in 1747.  He is

considered by many as the “father” of modern Afghanistan.  While Ghilzai 

members of the Taliban, as suggested above, have long disdained the

Durranis, Ahmad Shah is revered by all Afghans.  Sykes in his History of 

Afghanistan calls Ahmad Shah: 

a monarch whose high descent and warlike qualities made him 

peculiarly acceptable to his aristocratic and virile Chiefs, as well

as to his warlike subjects in general.  In short, he possessed all the 

qualities that enabled him successfully to found the Kingdom of

Afghanistan. 52

The second “ancestor and hero” referenced is Sultan Mahmud 

Ghaznawi, a young Turkic (non­Afghan) king who ascended the throne

around the year 1000 and embarked on Ghaznavid empire building that 

represented “one of the great renaissances of the Early Islamic period.”53

Mahmud was considered a great general who conducted at least seventeen 

successful campaigns against India.  According to Dupree: 

He added northwest India and the Punjab to his empire, and 

enriched his treasury by looting wealthy Hindu temples.  Probably 

more important, Mahmud’s mullahs converted many Hindus to 

Islam. 54
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

63 

Some historians, such as Caroe, trace the origin of the Ghilzais to the

Turkish tribes of the Ghaznavid Empire.  Turkish tribes such as the Khalaj 

Turks who once occupied the districts bordering the upper course of the 

Syr Darya (Jaxartes) were brought into Afghanistan by the Turk Emperor

Sultan Subaktagin in the 10th Century. 55 While speculative, could the

reference to Mahmud be alluding to the glorious genealogy of the Ghilzai? 

It is worth noting that none of the Afghan ancestors who are referenced as 

“heroic in the fight against non­Muslims” by this narrative are recognized 

members of Ghilzai tribe.  Assuming that the Taliban are primarily a

Ghilzai tribal movement that is partly driven by their desire for leadership 

in the country, the use of non­Ghilzai tribal leaders to highlight, by 

example, the required and dutiful fight against the infidels is somewhat 

counterintuitive.  Why doesn’t the letter, at least refer to Mir Wais?

56

Even though they represent Afghanistan’s largest tribe, there is no doubt 

that the Ghilzais have been marginalized over time by Durrani royalty.  While unlikely, it is also possible that the reference to non­Afghan leaders 

is symbolically used by the narrative to justify the role of non­Afghan 

jihadists such as al Qaeda (Pakistanis, Arabs, Chechens, Uzbeks, etc.) in 

the Taliban insurgency.  The final “ancestor and hero” reference is to Shahab al­Din Ghuri, of

the Ghurid Dynasty who ruled from 1173­1206 and controlled the entire

eastern caliphate encompassing much of Afghanistan, eastern Iran, and 

modern Pakistan. 57 His numerous invasions of India and his powerful rule

helped construct a widespread and long­lasting historical memory framed 

by heroism and sacrifice through Afghan generations.  Although Ghaznawi 

and Ghuri were not Afghan by birth, history granted them an Afghan 

pedigree, and the two kings are still honored as heroes.  Hence, the Taliban 

night letter uses the collective historical memory of Afghans handed down 

through generations to frame their intellectual argument against popular
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

64 

support of the Karzai regime and American forces.  The shabnamah’s 

narrative glorifies those who have fought and converted infidels to the

righteous path—the goal of the Taliban.  This shabnamah represents a clear challenge to the Karzai regime and 

it expatriate members and proffers that “it is a pity that today some

American­trained servants ... have destroyed the honored history of

Afghanistan.”  The letter also follows the time­honored Afghan practice of

attacking foreign influence—a xenophobic message that has historically 

resonated with the Afghan people—which the Karzai Government and the 

Americans represent. 

A clear distinction is made between “Moslems” and “non­Muslims” as 

the Taliban appeal to the true Islamic believers and decry the “false

propaganda of non­Muslim enemies.”  The letter appeals to the

population’s gratitude and appreciation for the “martyrs” of the Soviet 

occupation and the Taliban’s battles during OEF, even citing casualty 

statistics.  The letter states that the Taliban are against killing common 

citizens, but at times it can not be avoided.  On the other hand, the

shabnamah argues that supporters of the Karzai regime and the Americans 

are not “Afghans” and open targets. 

It is interesting to note that this night letter made its appearance during 

the height of the Demobilization, Disarmament, and Reorganization 

(DDR) campaign aimed at ridding the country of weapons and to convince

reluctant and recalcitrant regional and warlord militia members to support 

the Karzai regime.  The letter states that “Non­Moslems want to kill

Afghans by Afghans while they burn their arms and ammunitions.”  The

author of the letter obviously believes that disarmament is ludicrous while

Afghanistan’s enemies are “killing” Afghans.  During the 1990s there were

more personal weapons in Afghanistan than in India and Pakistan 

combined.  “By some estimates more such weapons had been shipped into
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

65 

Afghanistan during the previous decade than to any other country in the

world.”58 Afghans and especially the Pashtuns revel in a “gun culture.”

One of the first sounds an Afghan male infant hears after he is born, 

immediately after praise to Allah, is the firing of guns celebrating his birth.  An appeal against DDR is not only a clear indication that the Taliban track 

aspects of the Bonn Process, especially those that have the potential to 

impact their insurgent actions, it is also, more importantly, a  recognition 

that the Taliban understand that taking away a Pashtun’s gun is equivalent 

to taking away his manhood.  While, the Taliban undoubtedly do not want 

Afghans, especially their supporters, to give up their weapons and become

“helpless,” the narrative is appealing to a deeper characteristic that 

resonates with nearly every Pashtun.  Indeed guns intimately related to the

Pashtun tribal code of Pashtunwali and “as a result ...most [Pashtun] males 

become acquainted with weapons in their early childhood and develop a

keen sense of marksmanship.”59 The Pashtun’s affinity for weapons has 

traditionally plagued every state’s attempt to enforce its own rule of law

over top of Pashtunwali.  The document does not communicate any direct threat against the US

military, but it does insinuate that Americans destroyed mosques and

madrassahs in order to reeducate Afghan children about Christianity.  Such a narrative is presented to create mistrust and apprehension among 

the Afghan population.  Afghanistan is 99 percent Muslim and religion is

and always has been a central driving characteristic of the Afghan people.  The letter warns that the enemies “want to make Afghanistan as 

helpless as Palestine.”  An emphasis on the plight of the Palestinians has 

been a central focal and rallying point for Islamists for decades.  In the past

it has not, however, been an explicit mantra of the Afghan resistance.  The

mujahideen, for example, had a more mundane and limited goal of

liberating Afghanistan from the Soviets and fighting the puppet
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

66 

government they installed in Kabul.  “They had no intention or desire to 

turn their country into a theater or camp from which to wage global jihad 

against either other Muslim governments or Western states.”60 It is 

interesting that the Taliban who in the past have never represented a

transnational jihadist organization would focus on this cause, even 

indirectly in their shabnamahs. 

The letter concludes with a poem which is aimed at invoking respect 

and striking a chord in the receivers’ historical memory.  Through 

repetition, poetry provides a way to remember facts or messages and 

enhances the delivery method with emotion anchored in cultural traditions. 

It is likely this proclamation was read aloud by an educated village elder to 

illiterate members of the local populace emphasizing the poem at the end 

of the letter, possibly even reading it twice to allow the audience to 

experience the power of the poem.  Figure 3 presents a shabnamah that is an example of a warning letter

targeted at the populace of the Qandahar province towns of Ma’ruf and 

Arghistan. 61 Unlike the night letter examined above, this letter appears 

quickly constructed and warns the Afghan population against supporting 

the Americans. 

The letter was written in Pashtu and warns the residents of Ma’ruf and 

Arghistan against cooperating with the Americans.  It explicitly suggests 

that the Taliban will kill all those that cooperate with the Americans once

the Americans leave.  The point is emphasized by asserting, “the

Americans will not always be there” to protect those who chose to 

cooperate.  This a typical message delivered by Taliban mullahs speaking 

to rural village elders.  They are fond of saying, “the Americans have the

wristwatches, but we have the time.” The simple message they deliver in 

person or by night letter such as one presented in Figure 3 is one of

intimidation:  “The Americans may stay for five years, they may stay for
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

67

Figure 3:  Taliban Night Letter 2: Warning letter to the people of

Ma’ruf and Arghistan, two towns within Qandahar province.

ten, but eventually they will leave, and when they do, we will come back 

to this village and kill every family that has collaborated with the

Americans or the Karzai government.”  Such a message is devastatingly 

effective in these areas where transgenerational feuds and revenge are a

fabric of the society.  It is also an effective message to keep NGOs and 

reconstruction activities out of areas the Taliban control. 

If one assumes that the center of gravity for both the insurgency and 

counter­insurgency is popular support and that for the Karzai Government 

to succeed they must deliver reconstruction, infrastructure, and services to 

the hinterlands (areas which have thus far received virtually nothing) then 

the Taliban’s strategy has proven a very effective.  The three fundamental 

problems in Afghanistan that have allowed the Taliban’s reemergence are
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

68

· the inability of the national government since 2001 to establish a

politically significant presence throughout the country,

· the failure of the international community to create a secure rural 

environment in the south conducive to development and 

reconstruction, and

· the virtually complete lack of meaningful improvement in the

lives of the great majority of the people in the southern half of the

country. 62

The insurgency and counterinsurgency presently engulfing 

Afghanistan will not be won kinetically.  Ultimately, the winners will be

those that have the support of the population; this support will not be 

realized by the Karzai Government if it does not deliver a better life and 

stability to the countryside as well as to the urban areas.  The hinterlands 

of the east and south remain impoverished wastelands with few schools

and roads and little prospect of a better life for the vast majority of the

populous.  A poll conducted in 2005 showed that six out of ten Afghans 

still have no electricity and only three percent have it consistently. 63 The

Taliban are well aware of this and will continue to put up obstacles to 

inhibit Kabul or the international community to better the lives of the

average Afghan villager.  Whole districts in provinces such Helmand,  Oruzgan, Zabol, Paktika, Ghazni, Wardak and Logar are essentially war

zones with virtually no chance of rehabilitating fractured infrastructures—

a prerequisite for the counterinsurgency.  Figures 4a and 4a present a recent Taliban night letter and its 

translation from the Wardak Province and authored by “the Mujahedin of

the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”  This shabnamah is significantly 

different than the others night letters examined here.  This narrative uses 

language that mimics that regularly used by transnational jihadist 

organizations and intimates that the ultimate goal of the Afghan insurgency 

has a global dimension.  This message is in stark contrast with the

shabnamah presented in Figures 2a and 2b written in 2004.  The significant
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

69

Figure 4a: Wardak Night Letter

64
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

70

Figure 4b: Translation of Wardak Night Letter

65

The Prophet of God Mohammed (peace be upon Him) says: One who 

lends a hand to infidels to transgress [against Muslims] is one of them. 

­­By the Islamic Devoted Mujahedin  In the name of Allah, the most

merciful and most compassionate

Statement

Pious Afghans, Brave and Courageous People! Accept our greetings;

Dear Muslim and devout brother! As you all know some countries in the

Islamic world and specifically our dear country­Afghanistan­are spending 

day and night under the grip of the crusaders in the last few years. During 

this time the cruel crusaders' army and their domestic servants have

committed grave atrocities, barbarity and savagery against our innocent 

brothers and sisters. Their cruelties have not ceased. You have watched 

and heard of their ongoing savagery in Afghanistan and Iraq, the two best 

examples that have been exposed by the international media. Therefore, 

the Afghan Muslim Mujahids have initiated their sacred Jihad to gain the

independent of our beloved country from the crusader powers. The Jihad 

will continue till the end­ till defeat of the crusaders' army, and till the

establishment of a pure Islamic State. (Inshallah)

Therefore, the Afghan Muslim Mujahedin state the following related 

guidelines to ensure obtaining our goals, and ask earnestly all Afghans to 

respect them seriously: 

1. All those who work and are at the service of the crusader army,  cooperate military of logistically with them, and carry oil, food and similar

things for them, are warned strongly to stop cooperating with them 

promptly; otherwise, they will face serious consequences. 

2. All those who do business with the crusaders are asked to avoid doing 

business with them, so as not to suffer during the exalted strike of the 

mujahedin on the crusaders. 

3. We seriously ask all persons not to expose the holy names of the

mujahedin to the crusaders army and to their Afghan slaves during the

exalted strike of mujahedin on them, and likewise, we ask those Afghans 

who spy for Americans and for their Afghan slaves to stop doing this evil

act, otherwise, they will be punished at the hands of the holy mujahedin 

according to Sharia. 

4. We ask all Muslims to cooperate whole­heartedly with their mujahedin 

brothers and to join their ranks and to support jihads, so as to perform their 

religious duty properly.  5. We ask all those who spread false allegation against mujahedin to stop 

their evil acts.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

71 

The mujaheds' power is not based on any foreign support, it is founded on 

Allah's blessing and the will of the Afghan Muslim people. 

(God grand success to the mujahed everywhere and always). 

The Mujahedin of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan 

Religious Scholars say: Cooperation with infidels, under any circumstance

and any reason and excuse, in any form, is an open blasphemy that needs 

no deliberation.  Afghanistan's Devoted Mujahedin 

differences in these two letters suggest that the Afghan insurgency might 

very well be morphing into a campaign with more transnational concerns. 

One theme of the letter is do not associate or help the Karzai regime

and coalition forces or you will be judged as one of them (“One who lends 

a hand to infidels to transgress [against Muslims] is one of them”).  This

message of intimidation, as we have seen before, is clearly a cornerstone of

Taliban night letter narratives. 

This letter, like many other Taliban shabnamah, has considerably more

Islamic references than the narratives assessed above (or below). 

Juergensmeyer suggests that religious tropes are more likely to play a

narrative role if the confrontation between two groups can be characterized 

as a “cosmic struggle or battle.”  This is most likely in the following 

circumstances:

1. If the struggle is perceived as a defense of basic identity and 

dignity. 

2. If losing the struggle would be unthinkable. 

3. If the struggle is “blocked” and cannot be won in real time or in 

real terms. 

66

The first two circumstances are valid for the case of the Taliban; as was 

probably the third circumstance until recently.  The Taliban view this

insurgency, as evidenced in their shabnamah, as a struggle over basic

questions of identity and culture.  It must be won, losing is not an option.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

72 

The shabnamah invokes the name of Allah via a standard greeting and 

begins by rallying the population against the “crusaders” and “their 

domestic servants.”  The use of the term “crusaders” is significant.  This

terminology is used by Osama bin Laden when he refers to the conflict in 

Afghanistan as a battle between “a crusader army” and Islam. 67 The use of

this terminology suggests that the United States and its allies are waging a

crusade against Islam and this “aggression” is not an isolated conflict, but 

rather the latest episode in a long chain of conflicts that have been targeted 

at Muslims.  While there is no evidence suggesting that this letter was 

written by al Qaeda or an Afghan­Arab, the language used is very similar

to the regular terminology used by al Qaeda.  It proclaims a clash of

civilizations. 

The declaration accuses the “crusaders and their domestic servants “of

unceasing “atrocities, barbarity and savagery against our innocent brothers 

and sisters” in both Afghanistan and Iraq.  Both of these conflicts

represent, in the eyes of the Taliban, defensive jihads against a Christian 

onslaught that will continue until the “defeat of the crusaders’ army,” and 

“the establishment of a pure Islamic State.”  This jihad, according to the

narrative is a collective responsibility of all Muslims and the shabnamah 

instructs Afghans to

· offer no assistance or cooperation to US or Afghan National 

Armed Forces or “face serious consequences,”

· not divulge the identity (“holy names”) of the insurgents,

· end the “evil act” of spying for the enemy or “be punished at the

hands of the holy mujahedin according to Sharia,”and

· cooperate and join the Taliban “so as to perform ... religious duty 

properly.”

The letter concludes by suggesting that those that ignore the advice

and instructions of the shabnamah will be dealt with swiftly without
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

73 

deliberation.  Such a response, claims the night letter, has been sanctified 

by “religious scholars”—a powerful message to Afghans. 

The Islamic underpinnings reflected in this shabnamah have long been 

a component of the Afghan resistance.  For example, Hazarat Shaib or

Mullah Shor Bazar (a member of the Mujadidi family) was an important 

Afghan religious figure whose Ghilzai tribal army or lashkar

68

inflicted 

heavy losses on the British during the Third Anglo­Afghan war of 1919. 

Hazarat Shaib would later defeat the Afghan reform­minded King 

Amanullah Khan and assist Nadir Kahn to overthrow Bacha Saqqao in 

1929. 69 Other religious leaders such as Mirwais Khan Hotaki and Mullah 

Mushki Alam also organized lashkars that fought against the British 

occupation of Afghanistan.  And of course during the anti­Soviet jihad, 

talibs (or religious students) regularly fought alongside the mujahideen 

mainly under the leadership of Mohammad Nabi and his Harakat­i­ 

Inqilab­i­Islami and Hizb­i­Islami (Khalis). But none of these movements

had explicit global goals aimed at the Islamic ummah.  For much of its existence the Taliban was explicitly against extending 

their mission outside of the borders of Afghanistan.  Mullah Omar, the

Taliban’s primary “identity entrepreneur,” chastised bin Laden for

pursuing global jihadist goals as evidenced during a Shariat radio 

broadcast in March, 1997 when Omar, warned bin Laden not to target 

Saudi Arabia from Afghanistan. 70 Again in August of 1998 Omar

expressed displeasure over a statement by Saudi dissident Osama

Bin Laden in which he threatened to avenge the US attack on his

bases in Khost in Southern Afghanistan.  ‘There cannot be two 

different and parallel emirates (or governments) in Afghanistan.  We have a central Taleban­led authority ruling the country and it

ought to be obeyed,’ he contended....  The supreme Taleban 

leader said he was sending an emissary to Osama Bin Laden to tell

him to show restraint and leave it to the Islamic Emirate of

Afghanistan to take the required measures to defend itself and 

give an appropriate answer to the US attack on its soil.  Earlier, he

had asked the Saudi millionaire not to pursue his political agenda
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

74 

from Afghanistan's soil. He had told Bin Laden that he can stay in 

Afghanistan as a guest only.  The Taleban were in particular upset 

when Bin Laden held a press conference in his base in Khost in 

May this year and announced the launching of the International 

Islamic Front for Jehad against America and Israel. The Taleban 

leadership first expressed ignorance about the news conference

and Bin Laden's warnings to the US and later informed him that 

he was overstepping their hospitality. 71

The role of the Taliban in the larger global Islamist jihad has been a

question that has baffled researchers.  Most would agree with Fawaz

Gerges when he suggests that Afghan resistance has never been focused 

outside the Afghan border. 72 The message portrayed in the shabnamah 

(Figure 4a and 4b), however, indicates that this position may be changing 

as the Taliban garner strength and other international events turn against

the West (e.g., Iraq, Lebanon).  There is ample evidence to suggest that 

Mullah Omar appeals to the global Ummah73 but he, as well as the Taliban, 

has traditionally not pursued actions directly and explicitly aimed at this

audience.  Figures 5 and 6 present night letters that represent messages of 

intimidation against schools and teachers involved in female education.  The Taliban’s strict views against female education are related primarily to 

its views concerning the “protection” of a woman’s honor that emanate 

from the code of Pashtunwali where women are forbidden to participate in 

most events and processes outside of their kin group.  The authority of the

kin is a male prerogative.  Gulick describes such kin relations as an 

expression of the “peril and refuge mentality.”  He observes that the kin 

who provide a person with social, emotional, and, if necessary, armed 

support are also competitors for the same resources.  In the case of women, 

the same brothers and father with whom they are so close and who are

their protectors are also their executioners, should the males doubt the

daughter's or sister's chastity. These are also the relatives who know the 

person best and to whom he or she is consequently most vulnerable.”74
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

75 

The Taliban have recently accelerated their campaign against female 

education by burning schools and attacking teachers.  The Afghan Ministry 

of Education has reported that 267 schools have been forced to stop 

classes—a third of them in the south—because of Taliban intimidation. 75

The draconian writs against female education during the reign of the

Taliban are well documented and portend to continue into the future.  Figure 5 presents a letter from 2005 found in Kapisa posted to a tree

three days before a boys’ school in the area was set on fire.  The letter was 

apparently posted by the “Taliban Islamic Movement Representative of

Parwan and Kapisa Provinces” and represents a “warning” against female 

education.  According to Human Rights Watch other shabnamahs were

also found in the school.  The shabnamah warns both ulema and teachers 

alike not to attempt to educate girls.  It suggests that the Taliban knows 

who is presently violating this edict and that they will be appropriately 

dealt with.  This is to inform all those who have enrolled at boys’ schools to stop 

going to schools. An explosion might occur inside the school compounds. 

In case of getting hurt, it is they who bear all the responsibilities. They 

have no right to claim that they have not been informed. Taliban incidents

like burning of tents and school buildings, explosions near schools, and 

threats to female teacher are well documented and were a focus of

international concern during the reign of the Taliban.  Threats such as 

those delivered in the narrative of this night letter can not be taken lightly. 

In January 2006 Malim Abdul Habib, the headmaster of Shaikh Mathi

Baba high school, which is attended by 1,300 boys and girls, was stabbed 

eight times before he was decapitated in the courtyard of his home in 

Qalat, Zabul. 76

The second part of the letter warns students not to go to boy’s schools: 

“an explosion might occur inside the school compounds.  In case of getting
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

76

Figure 5: Taliban Islamic Movement Representative of Parwan and

Kapisa Provinces Warning 77

Translation:

Taliban Islamic Movement Representative of Parwan and Kapisa 

Provinces Warning

This is a warning to all those dishonorable people, including ulema and 

teachers, not to teach girls. Based on the information given to us, we

strongly ask those people whose names been particularly reported to us, 

not to commit this act of evil. Otherwise, it is they who bear all the

responsibilities. They have no right to claim that they have not been 

informed.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

77 

hurt, it is they who bear all the responsibilities.  They have no right to 

claim that they have not been informed.”  This threat levied at a boy’s 

school that was constructed by a US Provincial Reconstruction Team 

(PRT) represents an additional indication of the Taliban’s strategy of

negating any and all reconstruction and infrastructure development in the

Afghan hinterlands.

Figure 6: Taliban Might Letter from Ghazni 78

Translation:

Greetings toward the respected director [of education] of Ghazni province,  Fatima Moshtaq. I have one request, that you step aside from your duties. 

Otherwise, if you don't resign your position and continue your work,  something will happen that will transform your family and you to grief. I

am telling you this as a brother, that I consider you a godless person. I am 

telling you to leave your post and if you continue your work, I will do 

something that doesn't have a good ending. It should not be left unsaid that
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

78 

one day in the Jan Malika school I heard Wali Sahib praise Ahmad Shah 

Masood, I wanted transform your life to death and with much regret Wali

Assadullah was present there and I didn't do anything to cause your death.  But if you don't resign your work, I will attack you and take you to death.  With respects,  27 Meezan 1384 

At the bottom (last paragraph): 

Look dear Fatima consider your poor employee who will suffer. He was in 

front of the house look at how many body guards you have for instance the

one who was there but if you have them it doesn't matter to us. I was 

following you from 4 in the afternoon till 7 at night. 

With Respects.  The shabnamah presented in Figure 6 is an example of Taliban 

intimidation directed at a specific individual—Fatima Moshtaq, the Ghazni 

Province Director of Education.  Threats were apparently directed against

Moshtaq because of her role in female education.  She is warned that both 

she and her family are in grave danger.  The letter calls on her to resign her

position—in the eyes of the Taliban, a position that should never be held 

by a women.  Similar threats have been directed at numerous government 

officials by Taliban night letters. 

Local education officials in Ghazni blame the Taliban for scores of the

attacks on educational institutions.  According to Human Rights Watch 

during 2004­2005, 31 percent of students officially enrolled in Ghazni 

schools were girls.  The two of the eighteen provincial districts that happen 

to lie in southern Ghazni and are areas of significant insurgent activity 

have no girls enrolled in school 79—yet another indication that the Taliban 

intimidation campaign is succeeding.  Finally, Figure 7a presents a 2003 Qandahar shabnamah while Figure

7b presents the night letter’s translation.  After the recitation of a Koranic 

verse (“Jihad is a right in Allah’s Path—Jihad yesterday, Jihad until the 

Day of Judgment”) this proclamation authored by “Jamiat­e Jaish al 

Muslemin” presents a series of specific actions and instructions that
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

79

Figure 7a: Night Letter from Kandahar

80
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

80

Figure 7b: Translation of Night Letter from Kandahar

81

(Arabic Koranic verse): Jihad is a right in Allah’s Path ­ Jihad yesterday,  Jihad until the Day of Judgment.

Jamiat­e Jaish alMuslemin

Announcement

Date: Date: 24/Moharram/1424 [23 April 2003]

1. This letter aims to address those who are Muslim but work with the

current American puppet government, either for money or, assuming they 

serve Islam, to abandon their jobs immediately, 

2. Muslims do not use government vehicles, 

3. Whenever a governmental vehicle is exploded or damaged by any 

means, Muslims do not go there in order to have a look at the site, 

4. Where there is a feast, Muslims should not go there with government 

officials, because danger may threaten them, 

5. Respected Muslim does not go to [illegible] because whoever goes there

commit double sins: one they commit [illegible] and second they rescue

government officials, 

6. Ulema and influential leaders of the community should not go to the 

governmental shura (council), 

7. Those women who are teachers and adult girls who are students should 

not go to schools, 

8. Muslim cars should not use the roads used by government officials’ 

cars, 

9. All Muslims should desist from transporting American equipment and 

oil in their cars, 

10. Muslims should avoid going to places where foreigners stay, such as 

hotels, etc. 

11. Muslims should not work in organizations [NGOs] because Americans 

use those NGOs for their own purpose. 

12. Muslims’ sons who are working with the current infidel’s government
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

81 

should get out of it immediately. Those, whoever, who act in opposition to 

the above­mentioned rule bear the mortal and eternal responsibilities. 

Al­SalaamQandaharis presently working with the Karzai Government 

(“American puppets”) are to follow:

· immediately quit your government or NGO job,

· do not use government vehicles and do not go to areas where such 

vehicles have been damaged or destroyed,

· never go to a feast where government officials are to be present,

· ulema as well as community leaders should not attend 

governmental shuras,

· woman and girls are forbidden from educational participation,

· Muslim cars should not use the roads used by government 

officials,

· do not transport American equipment, and

· avoid hotels frequented by westerners. 

These instructions represent an integrated program to obstruct government 

operations in Qandahar.  The letter written in 2003 appears to foreshadow the use of improvised 

explosive devises (IEDs) and vehicle­born improvised explosive devises 

(VBIEDs) as well as suicide bombings—presently a grave concern and a

tactic previously unknown in Afghanistan.  Despite a quarter­century of

war, suicide attacks in Afghanistan have been relatively rare.  “Suicide is

not a characteristic tactic of the Afghan people ... they have a cultural 

aversion to it.”82 Only five suicide attacks—none of which targeted 

civilians—were reported during the first three and a half years after the

Taliban were driven from power.  The recent use of IEDs has demonstrated an unusual level of internal 

coordination and a growing technological sophistication in the Afghan 

insurgency.  Since the summer of 2004, a variety of guerilla tactics,
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

82 

including assassinations and kidnappings, in Afghanistan 83suggest that 

insurgents are borrowing tactics from Iraq. 

84 In the first six months of

2006, Afghan insurgents set off 32 suicide bombs killing 82 people and 

wounding 244, six more than in all of 2005. 85 Since July 1, militants have

staged 27 suicide bombings, killing 98 people and wounding 188. 

According the NATO officials a total of 173 people, mostly citizens, have

been killed this year by suicide attacks. 

86

The great majority of the suicide attacks carried out during the last two 

years appear to be “outsourced” to non­Afghans, most often to Punjabis 

from the south of Pakistan and young foreign Islamists recruited from 

radical groups in the Middle East.  Recently, such attacks have targeted 

government officials such Hakim Taniwal, the governor of Afghanistan's 

Paktia province; during his funeral another suicide bomber detonated an 

explosive device killing at least an additional six people.  Recent attacks 

have also targeted U.S. and coalition forces.  The quote of Mullah 

Dadullah cited in the introduction of the paper, would seem to suggest that 

suicide bombings will be used as a regular Taliban tactic in the future.

IMPLICATIONS AND CONCLUSIONS

Analysts and observers have recently argued that “the Taliban are now 

drawing increasing support from the Afghan population.”87 While it is

impossible to evaluate specifically how the Taliban’s night letter campaign 

has contributed to this “support,” Taliban narratives have clearly 

resonated; where their messages have not resonated with the populous, the

Taliban has compensated by waging an effective intimidation campaign.  This has clearly presented a dilemma for the Karzai government as well as 

US and coalition counterinsurgency strategies. 

The network of Afghan ethnic and political affiliations and loyalties is 

complex and continuously changing.  It is difficult, if not impossible to 

capture local and provincial alliances and refer to them as definitive lasting
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

83 

relationships.  This factor works against US strategists who find it easier to 

plan an operation targeting a fixed population with clearly delineated 

alliances, rather than shifting loyalties and politicization resulting from 

personal or tribal feuds.  OEF was a particular challenge to US information 

operation message strategists in that it was vital to have an intimate grasp 

of ethnic and local relationships on the ground.  The vast majority of these

analysts were virtually clueless in their understanding of the Taliban’s 

environment.  Although taking Kabul was a politico­strategic victory for

coalition forces, the countryside was still fragmented, and ethnic­alliance

topography had yet to be mapped by Special Operations Forces (SOF) in 

the areas.  Afghan geography created impassible barriers for tactical 

PSYOP which made radio or leaflet campaigns the only hope to get 

messages to the rural population.  But our messages have not resonated 

and the Taliban have clearly taken an immeasurable lead in the

information war.  Night letters such as those analyzed here have become a

central component of their strategy. 88

The level of US cultural intelligence prior to and even during the

initial campaign fell short of adequate and could not compete with the

Taliban information campaign which made use of its indigenous grasp of

local, provincial, and national themes to render their message more

powerful among their audience.  Some of the US narratives have been 

down right silly and an embarrassment. 

Understanding the Taliban and their tribal roots more precisely could 

enable a better calibration of information and psychological operations, a

more nuanced understanding of the battlefield and the human terrain by 

US and NATO forces, and would suggest a realignment of reconstruction 

priorities based on historical models to isolate the movement and prevent 

its further mobilization.  Assessing their night letters is one small way to 

do this.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

84 

In the introduction, the question was posed as to why and how Pashtun 

tribal customs as exemplified or interpreted by the Taliban moral 

sentiments supersede the state’s central rule of law.  Much of the areas of

Taliban operations and control are ungoverned spaces where tribal 

independence from the state is highly cherished.  These areas are primarily 

inhabited by segmentary societies, such as the Ghilzai.  Lindholm’s 

characterization of segmentary societies 

89

supports the notion that tribal 

organizational and normative factors, with which the Taliban are quite

familiar, impede the establishment of state authority.  Segmentary societies 

differ from other forms of society in that they only tend to unite when they 

feel they are losing influence over their own way of life.  The Taliban were

brilliant in exploiting such sentiments during their initial rise to power in 

1994­1996 when Afghans were extremely war weary and seeking to 

extend control over their lives that was lost over two decades of war as 

well as during the archaic and ineffectual mujahideen rule after the fall of

Najibullah.  The Taliban under their Ghilzai leadership offered stability, 

and the Afghan people welcomed it with open arms (at least until they 

recognized what the Taliban ultimately represented).  The Taliban through their present night letter campaigns are

mimicking their successful strategy of 1994­96 but with a series of 

modifications.  The narratives of the night letters represent the preservation 

of traditional Pashtun values and society at the expense of modernity.  Night letters used in urban areas by the Taliban, not assessed by the

analysis presented here, directly confront some of the ills of modernity, 

such as alcohol, pornography, and prostitution that are now very visible in 

urban areas such a Kabul and that the average Pashtun abhors. 

90 Expect to 

see more such letters targeting urban areas and a more sophisticated 

campaign against modernity as the Taliban insurgency push north—a

phenomenon that we have started to witness in 2006.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

85 

The Taliban as well as the Ghilzai society have deep interests in 

preserving traditional social structures and organizations and preventing 

social change.  Maintaining the social status quo is an explicit goal of a

segmentary society. 91 These root goals and world views are clearly 

evidenced in Taliban shabnamahs, and they severely hamper Kabul’s 

ability to offer social or economic progress as an incentive to accept state

authority.  Moreover, through their intimidation campaign the Taliban 

have been able to scare off those few NGOs and humanitarian 

organizations that could deliver on Karzai’s wishes.  This is proving to be

a brilliant strategy to defy Kabul and the counterinsurgency.  Ghilzai Pashtuns also, as suggested above, highly value and have

grown accustomed to their independence; they have preserved their way of

life for centuries, despite the efforts of some very powerful forces to alter

it.  Though there have been times when parts of this tribal society has 

experienced short durations of subjugation by alien forces, they were

permitted to conduct their lives in accordance with Pashtunwali.  Even 

today, the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATAs) of Pakistan,  which are predominantly inhabited by the Pashtun, are exempt from 

Pakistani law.  Independence is the historical norm for the Ghilzai, and the

Taliban night letters dwell on this fact.  The risk of losing tribal 

independence to “infidels and puppets of the West” outweighs the

possibility of improving tribal social welfare or increasing economic

opportunities that would probably be gained by accepting state authority.  Any concession in tribal independence should exceed any compensation 

offered in return for submission to state authority.  Kabul as well as the

United States and their coalition partners have failed to understand this.  Ultimately all of this is academic, if the Taliban are successful in their 

insurgency.  As of today, few informed analysts could realistically argue

that the United States and their coalition partners are on a road to success.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

86

NOTES

1 An earlier version of this paper was delivered at a “Conference on Tribal

Politics and Militancy in the Tri­Border Region: The Baluch and Pashtun 

Tribes of Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan,” Monterey, California, September 

2006. I would like to thank Capt. Keely Fahoum for invaluable assistance in 

the preparation of this paper. I would also like to thank Mariam Abou Zahab, Chris Mason, Thomas Barfield, and Larry Goodson for comments and 

suggestions on an earlier draft of this paper.

2 STRATFOR, “The Afghan Stalemate,” Geopolitical Diary, September 14,

2006, http://www.stratfor.com/products/premium/read_article.php?id=

275232&selected=Analyses .

3 Anna Badkhen, “Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban,” San Francisco Chronicle, September 17, 2006, A1.

4 See Thomas H. Johnson and W. Chris Mason, “Terrorism, Insurgency and 

Afghanistan,” in James JF Forrest (ed.) Countering Terrorism in the 21 st Century, Volume III: Lessons Learned From the Fight Against Terrorism

(New York: Praeger, forthcoming, 2007).

5 The Associated Press, “Top Taliban military commander dismisses NATO

casualty reports, warns journalists,” International Harold Tribune (Asian and 

Pacific Edition), September 4, 2006, Internet Version, http://www.iht.com/

articles/ap/2006/09/04/asia/AS_GEN_Afghan_Taliban.php .

6 This loose fitting cotton slipover shirt which has a long knee­length tail along 

with baggy pants held together with a draw­string represents the standard 

Pashtun garment. It is also called a peerahan­toonban.

7 See M. Chris Mason, “Pashtun Tribes and Governance in Afghanistan:

Center vs. Periphery,” paper delivered at a Conference on Tribal Politics and 

Militancy in the Tri­Border Region: The Baluch and Pashtun Tribes of 

Afghanistan, Iran, and Pakistan, September 2006, Monterey, CA.

8 Ahmed Rashid, Taliban (Yale University Press, 2001), 18­19; Michael

Griffin, Reaping the Whirlwind: Afghanistan, Al Qa’ida and the Holy War

(London: Pluto Press, 2003), 70.

9 Olaf Caroe states that Ghilzais are descendants of Khalaj Turks who came

with Attila and the Huns. Caroe also states that after several centuries these

tribes became Pashtunized, and they formed a unique dialect of Pakhtu with a

heavy Turkish vocabulary. He also states the word Ghilzai comes from Khalaj

which evolved through time from Khalaj to Khalji to Ghalji to Ghalzai or 

Ghilzai (Sir Olaf Caroe, The Pathans (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1968), 15­19.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

87 

10 See Thomas H. Johnson and W. Chris Mason, “Terrorism, Insurgency and 

Afghanistan.”

11 James W. Spain, The Pathan Borderland (Karachi, Pakistan: Indus

Publications, 1963) 41, 57; Sir Olaf Caroe, The Pathans, (Oxford: Oxford 

University Press, 1968) 15­19.

12 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Segmentary_lineage).

13 Charles Allen. Soldier Sahibs (New York: Carrol & Graf Publishers, 2000),

119.

14 Charles Allen. Soldier Sahibs,13.

15 John C. Griffiths, Afghanistan (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1967), 46­ 

47.

16 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press, 1973), 126­127.

17 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 322­325.

18 The only periods where the Pashtuns have not held power in Afghanistan 

was briefly in 1929 when Habibullah Ghazi, a Tajik, took power until he was

overthrown and Durranis returned to power. Burhanuddin Rabbani Tajik 

leader of the Jamiat­i­Islami was an ineffectual Mujahideen President of pre­  Taliban Afghanistan from June 1992 until the Taliban took Kabul in 

September of 1996.

19 The competition and distrust between the Ghilzai and the Durranis played a

major role in the split of the PDPA where the Khalq (the people or masses) led 

by Nur Mohammed Taraki represented Ghilzai Pashtuns and the Parcham

(Banner) led by Babrak Karmal represented the Durrani Pashtun, See: Henry 

S. Bradsher, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union (Durham: Duke University, 1985, 2 nd Edition).

20 See Henry S. Bradsher, Afghanistan and the Soviet Union.

21 Gailani's NIFA party often stood in for the royal family, partially because of 

the anomalous position of King Zahir Shah.

22 Both Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, a sworn enemy of the US and long rival to the

Taliban until he signed an alliance of convenience with them after OEF’s

initial stage, and Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, fundamentalist leader of the Wahabbi

Iittihad­i­Islami (Islamic Unity), are both Ghilzai.

23 Thomas H. Johnson and W. Chris Mason, “Terrorism, Insurgency and 

Afghanistan.”

24 International Crisis Group, “Afghanistan: The Problem of Pashtun 

Alienation,” ICG Asia Report, No.62, Kabul/Brussels, 5 August 2003, 17.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

88 

25 Other seminaries outside the border areas that were important foundations

for the Taliban included ones in Karachi—Binori Town and Jamia Farooqia—  and in Lahore—Jamia Ashrafia. Similarly, there were important seminaries in 

Peshawar, Akora Khattack and Quetta, which all played a pivotal role in 

building up the Taliban movement. See Syed Saleem Shahzad, “How the

Taliban Builds its Army, Asia Times, August 27, 2003.

26 See Owen Bennett Jones, Pakisan: Eye of the Storm (Yale University Press, New Haven, CN, 2002); Barbara Metcalf, “The Madrasa at Deoband: A

Model for Religious Education in Modern India,” Modern Asian Studies 12, no. 1 (1978), and; Usha Sanyal, “Generational Changes in the Leadership of 

the Ahl­e Sunnat Movement in North India during the Twentieth Century,” Modern Asian Studies 32, no. 3 (July 1998).

27 Ahmed Rashid, “The Taliban: Exporting Extremism,” Foreign Af airs,

(November/December 1999).

28 See Ahmed Rashid, Taliban (Yale University Press, 2001), 77, 83, 139.

29 “The Taliban government in Kabul recently rechristened the Islamic State of 

Afghanistan as Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under a decree by the Emirul

Momineen Mullah Mohammad Omar.” See London Al­Hayah in Arabic, “Taleban Prime Minister Interviewed,” October 3, 1997, Foreign Broadcast

Information Service, FTS19971003000379.

30 Cleavage between Kabul and Qandahar has existed for centuries. The

bureaucratic class in Kabul lives very differently when compared to other 

urban Afghans and especially when compared to the rural hinterland 

population. Kabuli bureaucrats and financial aristocrats are primarily but by 

no means all Tajik, but Dari (Afghan Farsi) is the lingua franca for all of them, even for most educated Kabuli Pashtuns. Since the 1960s the Dari­speaking 

elite professionals have been comfortable in adopting Western ways and 

languages. These people represent the vast majority of the Afghans westerners

usually come in contact with and comprises almost all of the pro­American 

Afghans. They likewise were the Kabulis who supported the King, then 

Dauod, then a series of Soviet Afghan communist and Soviet leaders. The

Taliban have always despised these Kabulis as have many other eastern and 

southern Afghan tribal elements.

31 David Edwards, Heroes of the Age: Moral Fault Lines on the Afghan Border

(Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1996).

32 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 114.

33 The semantics used here have been informed by the work of William D. Casebeer. See William D. Casebeer, Natural Ethical Facts: Evolution, Connectionism, and Moral Cognition (Boston: MIT Press, 2003); Wiliam D. Casebeer and James Russell, “Storytelling and Terrorism: Towards a
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

89 

Comprehensive Counter­Narrative Strategy,” Strategic Insights, Volume IV,

Issue 3 (March 2005), and: Troy S. Thomas and William D. Casebeer, Turbulent Arena: Global Ef ects against Non­State Adversaries, INSS

Occasional Paper 58, June 2005.

34 While such components of culture are critical in some contexts (See William

Graham Sumner notes in Folkways and Mores, New York: Schocken, 1906),

they are not a subject of analysis here.

35 See Daniel G. Bates and Fred Plog, Cultural Anthropology, 2nd Edition

(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1980), 7.

36 See David Edwards, Heroes of the Age.

37 Mark Turner The Literary Mind (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998) 

1.

38 See, for example, Alicia Juarero, Dynamics in Action (Cambridge, MA: MIT

Press, 1999); Troy Thomas, William Casebeer and Stephen Kiser, Warlords

Rising: Confronting Violent Non­State Actors (Lanham, MD: Lexington 

Books, 2005); or Thomas and Casebeer, Violent Systems; A. C. Graesser and 

G. V..Nakamura, (1982), “The impact of a schema on comprehension and 

memory.” in H. Bower (Ed.), The Psychology of Learning and Motivation, 16, 59–109 (Academic Press, 1990), Maybel Chau­Ping Wong, “The effects of 

story schemata on narrative recall,” https://repository.ust.hk/dspace/

handle/1783.1/1337 (2004) and; Daniel Dennett, “The Self as Center of 

Narrative Gravity,” http://ase.tufts.edu/cogstud/papers/selfctr.htm (1992).

39 See D. A. Snow and R. Benford, “Ideology, Frame Resonance, and 

Participant Mobilization,” in B. Klandermans, H. Kriesi & S. Tarrow (eds.),

From Structure to Action (Greenwich: JAI Press, 1988), Vol.1, pp. 197–217.

40For example, see: Doug McAdam, John D. McCarthy, and Mayer N. Zald,

eds., Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 1996), or Doug McAdam, Sidney Tarrow, and Charles Tilly, “Toward an Integrated Perspective on Social Movements and Revolution,” in 

Lichback and Zuckerman (eds), Comparative Politics: Rationality, Culture

and Structure (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997).

41 The use of oral narratives for the transmittal of instructions and legends is

crucial especially in rural Afghanistan when you consider that the vast

majority of the rural population is illiterate. Night letters are generally 

delivered to a literate village member and read to the community during a

mass meeting.

42 Hafizullah Emadi, Culture and Customs of Afghanistan (London:

Greenwood Press, 2005) 98.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

90 

43 Sandy Gall, Afghanistan: Agony of a Nation (London: The Bodley Head,

1988) 99.

44 Nelofer Pazira, A Bed of Red Flowers: In Search of My Afghanistan (New

York: Free Press, 2005), 102.

45 I would like to thank NPS student Capt. Keely M. Fahoum, USAF, for her 

outstanding support of some Taliban night letter analysis presented here. Capt. Fahoum’s earlier conceptualizations on Taliban shabnamah have been critical

to my thinking on the subject.

46 For example of a media account of night letters posted near the Spin Boldak 

border, see: Ron Synovitz, “Afghanistan: U.S. Investigates Taliban 'Night

Letters' Threatening Villagers,” RadioLiberty, March 10, 2004,

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/03/c47dc6f9­5e79­4213­8c0e­  2430cf0557b5.html .

47 Aryn Baker, “Deadly Notes in the Night: How the Taliban is using a new

kind of terrorist threat to intimidate Afghans,” Time Magazine, July 5, 2006.

48 Aryn Baker, “Deadly Notes in the Night.”

49 PYSOP officer interview by Capt. Keely M. Fahoum, June 14, 2006. US PSYOP personnel have expressed their frustration because of their 

inability to respond to Taliban night letters in a timely, effective manner. While the Taliban could hand deliver their communiqués to strategic points of 

contact within rural villages, US PSYOP planners have limited physical access

or intimate knowledge of village politics and social structure. During OEF, PSYOP personnel and analysts struggled with bureaucratic red tape which 

made it next to impossible to respond to Taliban propaganda efforts in a timely 

manner. (Personal communication with two PSYOPS officers at the Naval

Postgraduate School, May­July 2006.) 

50 This particular Night Letter was provided in May 2006 by a government

analyst returning from an Afghanistan deployment.

51 Translation provided by Amin Tarzi, interview, July 14, 2006, and Farid 

Mohammad, September 2008.

52 Sir Percy Sykes, A History of Afghanistan (London: Macmillian, 1940), 367.

53 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 314.

54 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 314.

55 Olaf Caroe, The Pathans, 15­19.

56 The only Ghilzai to hold the Afghan “throne” was Mir Wais, founder of the

short­lived Hotaki Dynasty (1709­38) who also led an Afghan tribal revolt

against Persian rule that eventually led to the Afghan domination of Persia
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

91 

from 1722 until 1734 when Nadir Shah began to wrest control from the

Ghilzais. He was deposed by the tribal leadership that would eventually 

establish the Durrani Afghan Empire.

57 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 314.

58 Steve Coll, Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and bin 

Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (New York: Penguin 

Books: 2004), 238.

59 Jeffery J. Roberts, The Origins of Conflict in Afghanistan (Westport: Praeger 

Publishing, 2003), xiii.

60 Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far Enemy: Why Jihad went Global (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press, 2005), 83.

61 Provided by a government analyst deployed in Afghanistan in 2003,

translated by Amin Tarzi.

62 Thomas H. Johnson and W. Chris Mason, “Terrorism, Insurgency and 

Afghanistan.”

63 Anna Badkhen, “Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban,” A4.

64 Source: http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/2006/education/letter8.htm .

65 Source: http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/2006/education/letter8.htm .

66 See especially chapter eight of his Terror in the Mind of God: The Global

Rise of Religious Violence, 3rd Edition (University of California Press, 2003).

67 See Bruce Lawrence (ed.), Messages to the World: The Statements of

Osama Bin Laden, (London: Verso, 2005).

68 A term of Persian origin, meaning an army, a camp; or one belonging to an 

army, a soldier.

69 Louis Dupree, Afghanistan, 453.

70 Hong Kong AFP, “Taleban Not to Extradite Alleged Saudi Terrorist bin 

Laden,” March 27, 1997.

71Rahimullah Yusufzai, “Taleban Leader To Tell Bin Laden To Show

Restraint,” Islamabad The News (Internet Version) in English, Foreign 

Broadcast Information Service, FTS19980824000082.

72 Fawaz A. Gerges, The Far Enemy, 83.

73 He reportedly started the Taliban after a dream in which Allah came to him

in the shape of a man, asking him to lead the faithful. In 1996 he made a risky 

but brilliant propaganda move, which again supports the notion of him being a

charismatic leader, by taking the garment which Afghans believe to be the
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

92 

Prophet Mohammed's shroud or cloak out of Qandahar’s royal mausoleum for 

the first time in 60 years and wearing it in a public rally as a way to identify 

himself with the Prophet (Ahmed Rashid, Taliban, Yale University Press, 2001, p. 20). The cloak is believed by many of the 90 percent of Pashtuns

who are illiterate to contain supernatural and mystical powers. This action 

also represented Omar’s absolute faith in his perceived divine right to rule and 

gave him legitimacy in his role as leader of the Afghan people ordained by 

Allah; soon after Omar was named Amir­ul Momineen or leader of the

faithful—not just of the Afghans but of all Muslims. The cloak of the Prophet

Mohammed, which had been folded and padlocked in a series of chests in a

crypt in the royal mausoleum at Qandahar; “myth had it that the padlocks to 

the crypt could be opened only when touched by a true Amir­ul Momineen, a

king of the Muslims.” See: Joseph A. Raelin, “The Myth of Charismatic

Leaders,” March 2003, http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0MNT/

is_3_57/ai_98901483 .

74 Richard F. Nyrop and Donald M. Seekins (eds.), Afghanistan Country 

Study, (Washington, DC: The American University, Foreign Area Studies, 1986) http://www.gl.iit.edu/govdocs/afghanistan/Family.html .

75 Miles Bredin, “Class war: battle to educate Afghan girls and boys hindered 

by fear of Taliban retribution,” The Independent, September 12, 2006.

76 Noor Khan, “Militants behead Afghan principal for educating girls: Taliban 

assaults cited in closing of schools,” The Boston Globe January 5, 2006.

77 Human Rights Watch, http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/

2006/education/letter5.htm.

78 Humans Right Watch, http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/

2006/education/letter3.htm.

79 Human Right Watch, http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/

2006/education/letter3.htm.

80 Humans Right Watch, http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/

2006/education/letter9.htm.

81 Humans Right Watch, http://hrw.org/campaigns/afghanistan/

2006/education/letter9.htm.

82 Esther Pan, “Afghanistan’s New Security Threat,” Backgrounder, Council

on Foreign Affairs, February 14, 2006. Also see: Grif Witte, “Suicide

Bombers Kill Dozens in Afghanistan, Violence in South Is Seen as Message to 

NATO,” Washington Post Foreign Service, Tuesday, January 17, 2006; A11.

83 For a chronology of suicide bombings in Afghanistan, compiled by Radio 

Liberty see: http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2006/01/9ac36a59­d683­ 

4189­a2b9­94fe5fbf32ad.html.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

93 

84 Griff Witte, “Afghans Confront Surge In Violence: Foreign Support Seen 

Behind Attacks That Mimic Those in Iraq,” Christian Science Monitor, November 28, 2005, 1.

85 Eric Schmitt, “Springtime Killing in Afghanistan,” The New York Times, May 28, 2006.

86 Anna Badkhen, “Afghan government failure reopens door to the Taliban,” A4.

87 Syed Saleem Shahzad, “In search of the Taliban's missing link,” Asia Times

Online, September 16, 2006, http://atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/

HI16Df01.html.

88 This very effective Taliban information operation has recently been 

complemented with a professional and sophisticated Pashto and Arabic

website (English version is “under construction”), Alemarah.org or “Voice of 

Jihad” that lists occurrences of police corruption and reports of coalition 

attacks on innocent civilians. This website is clearly aimed at expanding 

Taliban influence in both Afghanistan and Pakistan and presents visitors with 

up­to­date news on Taliban activities and attacks in Afghanistan, editorials, official announcements, commentary, audio and video libraries, testimonials

by suicide bombers, poetry, magazines, books, and online contact information.

89 Charles Lindholm, “The Segmentary Lineage System: Its Applicability to 

Pakistan’s Political Structure,” in Ainslie T. Embree, ed., Pakistan’s Western 

Borderlands: The Transformation of Political Order (New Delhi: Vikas

Publishing House PVT, Ltd, 1977), 41­66.

90 While there are numerous Ghilzai Pashtuns living in urban areas of both 

Pakistan and Afghanistan, the vast majority live in rural areas.

91 Charles Lindholm, “The Segmentary Lineage System: Its Applicability to 

Pakistan’s Political Structure,” 60.
Johnson—Taliban Night Letters

94