A large part of the structure of the Taliban has been destroyed or dispersed by the invasion led by the United States 2001, which forced the militant group of power. Intermediate level commanders have been hit in recent months by Western forces, and responsible for NATO say that leadership-based Pakistanis has been undermined by infighting.
But, as the Afghanistan has floundered in recent years, the movement has rebounded, in part by the refocusing on its centuries-old skills by exploiting the links tribes and family, using foot messengers and keep an eye on his enemies.
The Taliban use the information it gathers to probe for the openings for the suicide attacks, to monitor the movements of Western and Afghan forces and hamper efforts to improve public services to help the Government to establish credibility for civilians.
But analysts also point to a key weakness: even if a new generation of militants is more apt at using the Internet, cell phones and social media, Taliban decentralized structure makes it difficult to synthesize information and to act in a unified way.
Western experts and Taliban agree on the importance of the information warfare as the United States aims to withdraw in 2014. The efforts of activists are based on an understanding that dates back to the days governing Taliban under Mullah Mohammed Omar.
"Mullah Omar said the first power in Afghanistan is information", said a Western military official in Kabul, the Afghan capital, which is familiar with the issues of information, citing officials former Taliban who knew leader of long standing of the movement. "He who controls the information control the will of the people."
Western forces and their Afghan allies to lead their own extensive intelligence operations. U.S. drones constantly circle the sky, and the monitoring of the electronic communication is ubiquitous. The Afghan Government has also claimed some success to thwart attacks.
But the Taliban is capable of maintaining a presence, even in those regions of the country who are most hostile to it. Hazara ethnic and religious Shiite Daikundi province, which for years was seen as a refuge against the Sunni Pashtun-dominated Taliban, the Governor said that he knew that the militants were close by.
In "night letters" distributed to homes the civilian warned insurgents only step to contribute to community projects and truckers not way to do business with the Government. "All that would happen in the local Council or the Government, they would know about it in two or three hours,", said Sultan Ali Oruzgani, a former Governor of Daikundi. "In the field of my power, they had infiltrated the army, the local government and the Parliament."
Activists have reached behind the stone walls high of Pul-i-Charki prison, which houses of Taliban and agents of Al-Qaeda, including some returned from the prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
"There are people in uniform on the payroll,", said an insider in the prison compound is of Kabul, who spoke the condition of anonymity, fear will endanger. "The black turban is always watching us."
The source, which is in centres of detention Afghanistan for years, said sympathizers among the help of guards detained Taliban remain in contact with ground contacts. Doctors, among the few outsiders with access to the prisoners, also help.
"Stuff is brought to them, all ways to communicate," said the Insider. "They have Internet wireless." They distribute and analyze video clips of operations. ?
Experts and former officials point out evidence of infiltration of the police and the Afghan army.
"In terms of entering the Afghan security forces, they had success more, using family ties and the resentments and against foreigners," said Arturo Munoz, a former analyst for the CIA who is now studying Afghanistan for the Rand Corp..
A U.S. military classified report published by WikiLeaks, a commander of the local police in the province of Paktia has been quoted as saying that the Taliban in the region was led by a member of the local government who have provided information on both sides.
Another report said a commander of the Haqqani network was the son of a colonel of the national police. Often, families place a son in the Taliban and the other in the army to cover their bet, said several analysts in Kabul.
"They know where the Government does not provide justice, so that they provide courts." "They know where the police are predatory, so that they provide an alternative," said Andrew Exum, a former agent of special forces in Afghanistan which is now at the Centre of a new American security, a Washington think tank.
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