Operation MIAS

An arms-reduction mission run by the American Central Intelligence Agency, Operation MIAS (Missing in Action Stingers) was tasked with buying back Stinger missiles given to the Mujahideen to fight the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Information about the program remains classified, although information has been gleaned from media accounts and government officials speaking off the record.

Timeline

Launched in 1990 with a Congressional earmark of $10 million, the operation competed against Chechen, Azeri and Iranian arms dealers anxious to capitalise on the break-up of the Soviet Union and impending battles among satellite states, as well as drug dealers looking for weapons to fend off aircraft in their space.

The price of a Stinger was estimated at $300,000. Other sources suggested that the weapons, which cost $20,000 to produce, were only selling for $100,000 on the black market, still much higher than the $70,000 that the CIA initially offered Afghans to turn them over.

In 1993, the CIA ailitants. The Institute unfavourably compared the results of the Afghanistan failure, with the success of the similar program which netted 41 out of the 43 missiles Eritrea had given Somali National Alliance leader Hussein Aideed in 1998.