An arms-reduction mission run by the AmericanCentral Intelligence Agency,Operation MIAS (Missing in Action Stingers) was tasked withbuying backStinger missiles given to theMujahideen to fight theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan.[1] Information about the program remainsclassified, although information has been gleaned from media accounts and government officials speakingoff the record.[2]
Launched in 1990 with a Congressional earmark of $10 million, the operation competed againstChechen,Azeri andIranianarms dealers anxious to capitalise on the break-up of theSoviet Union and impending battles among satellite states, as well as drug dealers looking for weapons to fend off aircraft in their space.[3]
The price of a Stinger was estimated at $300,000.[3] Other sources suggested that the weapons, which cost $20,000 to produce, were only selling for $100,000 on theblack market, still much higher than the $70,000 that the CIA initially offered Afghans to turn them over.[4]
In 1993, the CIA approached Congress noting that they required an additional $55 million to buy back the weapons, noting that a failure to secure the missiles could result in attacks against American civil aircraft.[5]
In 1998,Felix Sater provided the CIA with the location and serial numbers of approximately 10 Stingers held by theNorthern Alliance.[6]
The mission was dubbed a "failure" by theStockholm International Peace Research Institute, due to its inability to track the widely-dispersed weapons through decentralised groups, leaving hundreds of the devices in the hands of warlords and militants.[2] The Institute unfavourably compared the results of the Afghanistan failure, with the success of the similar program which netted 41 out of the 43 missilesEritrea had givenSomali National Alliance leaderHussein Aideed in 1998.[2]
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