Talk:Maktab al-Khidamat

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"many centers in the United States continued to operate, raising funds for al-Qaeda and in some cases harbouring the terrorists that struck on 9/11" doesnt this need to be cited, or something.. seems like a generic and somewhat inflammatory statement with no real substance

So does this group still exist today? the entry isn't really clear about that —Preceding unsigned comment added by 99.231.211.103 (talk) 21:54, 24 March 2009 (UTC)[reply]

timeline

This article makes a couple of assertions that I think are counter to what I have read.

The article says Azzam and OBL founded the group together. I am sure I read that Azzam founded this group on his own, and that OBL signed on later.

The article says that after Azzam's death the group was merged into al Qaeda. I am sure I read that there was no "al Qaeda", per se, that al Qaeda, which means "the base", or "the database", referred to the database of donors, volunteers, and other resources organized by Azzam, and his followers. So, if what I recall is correct Maktab morphed into what we now call al Qaeda. Geo Swan (talk) 20:01, 6 June 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Richard Miniter has a good outline in his book Disinformation, 22 media myths that undermine the War on Terror, in the first chapter about allegations/conspiracies of bin Laden's CIA funding. He cites Ahmed Rashid, author of the authoritative book Taliban, who writes that bin Laden's role in the 1980s was channeling money through the Makhtab al-Khidmat ("bureau of services)", which evolved into al Qaeda in 1989 after the pullout of Soviet troops. Funding for bin Laden's organization came from "Saudi Intelligence, the Saudi Red Crescent, the World Muslim League and private donations from Saudi princes and mosques," Rashid writes. Miniter's citation for this appears as:

Ahmed Rashid, "The Making of a Terrorist" (excerpted from Taliban), Straits Times, (Singapore), September 23, 2001

(Sorry for poor formatting, I am new to Wikipedia) 129.171.249.144 (talk) 15:28, 9 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]