The Taliban likes to portray itself as just, resolute and pure. But accounts coming out of Kabul these days depict it in a very different light--as corrupt, abusive and, with expectations of a U.S. attack mounting, increasingly vindictive. Dust-caked refugees fleeing the capital say streets are sealed off and soldiers go from house to house, press-ganging men of military age. "There is a jihad against the Americans going on. Why aren't you fighting?" the Taliban asked Kandaqa, a worker from Kabul, last week. He pledged his house as surety, then collected his family and fled across the mountains.
Northern Alliance officials...