Maktab al-Chidamāt
The Maktab al-Chidamāt or Maktab al-Chadamāt ( Arabic مكتب الخدمات 'Service office' or مكتب خدمات المجاهدين العرب Maktab Chidamāt al-Mujāhidīn al-ʿArab 'Service Bureau of the Arab Mujahideen ', English written Maktab al-Khidamāt , abbreviated MAK ) was a contact point for Islamist Afghanistan fighters at the time of the armed resistance against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan .
It was founded at the beginning of the 1980s by Abdallah Azzam , a mentor of Osama bin Laden , in Peshawar ( Pakistan ). Bin Laden played an important role within the MAK. The MAK's task was to recruit and train future Afghanistan fighters. It also served as an intermediary for financial transactions in favor of the Afghan resistance against the Soviet occupation .
It maintained close relations with the Saudi Arabian secret service al-Muchabarat al-'Amma and with the Pakistani government, in particular with the Pakistani secret service ISI , and through the latter with the CIA , which it co-financed through them.
After Azzam's death, bin Laden took over the leadership of the Maktab al-Chidamat and developed al-Qaeda from it .
Web links
- Syed Saleem Shahzad : Al-Qaeda against the Taliban. In: Le Monde diplomatique . July 13, 2007, accessed June 1, 2011 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Katz, Samuel M. "Relentless Pursuit: The DSS and the manhunt for the al-Qaeda terrorists", 2002