.. Azzam is identified by some experts as the intellectual architect of the jihad against the 1979 - 1989 Soviet Occupation of Afghanistan, and ultimately of Al Qaeda itself..
.. In 1984, Azzam and bin Laden structured this assistance by establishing a network of recruiting and fund-raising offices in the Arab world, Europe, and the United States. That network was called the Maktab al Khidamat (Services Office), also known as Al Khifah; many experts consider the Maktab to the the organizational forerunner of Al Qaeda.
.. During this period, most US officials perceived the volunteers as positive contributors to the effort to expel Soviet forces from Afghanistan, and the US officials made no apparent effort to stop the recruitment of the non-Afghan volunteers for the war. US officials have repeatedly denied that the United States directly supported the volunteers. The United States did covertly finance (about $3 billion during 1981-1991) and arm (via Pakistan) the Afghan mujahedin factions, particularly the Islamic fundamentalist Afghan factions, fighting Soviet forces. By almost all accounts, it was the Afghan mujahedin factions, not the Arab volunteer fighters, that were decisive in persuading the Soviet Union to pull out of Afghanistan.