Word: stinger
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...baggage screening became more rigorous, the chances of missile strikes would rise. The U.S. government's interest in the problem followed its decision to supply Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan - whose ranks included Osama bin Laden and many of his al-Qaeda lieutenants - with about 1,000 Stinger missiles in the 1980s. Pentagon officials credit the Stinger with downing about 250 Soviet aircraft...
...officials estimate that the roughly 400 Stingers unaccounted for in Afghanistan are nearing the end of their useful life, if they haven't already passed it. While defense officials suggest the missile system's battery is good for only about five years, many remain potent after 10 years. Both the basic Stinger supplied to the Afghan rebels and the Soviet-designed SA-7s are fairly crude weapons. But the CIA has launched several efforts since they were delivered in 1986-87 to get them back, offering up to $100,000 per missile, and sometimes paying more, U.S. officials...
...hooked up to NATO's grid yet, it could be very soon. Another reason for admitting the Balts to NATO is financial: Western weapons manufacturers win a few more clients as the new members upgrade their systems to NATO standards. Last week Lithuania signed an agreement to buy a Stinger anti-aircraft missile system from the U.S., thus becoming the first Baltic state to purchase the high-tech weaponry. Under the agreement, the Lithuanians will acquire 60 missiles at a cost of $31 million over three years. Lithuanian officials say the Stingers will reinforce the country's airborne defenses...
Alarming headlines last week suggested that international terrorism had come to Hong Kong. Three men of South Asian descent were arrested for allegedly trying to trade drugs for Stinger missiles, the shoulder-launched anti-aircraft weapons used to wipe out Soviet planes and helicopters in Afghanistan in the 1980s. A U.S. indictment of the three suspects claims that the arms were destined for al-Qaeda, and U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft has enthusiastically hailed the bust as a "strike against the terrorism/drug-trafficking nexus...
...marble-clad Conrad Hotel, where the average room costs $210 per night. According to the indictment, the deal then firmed up: the three men offered 5 metric tons of hashish and 600 kilos of heroin. They later agreed, says the indictment, to take payment in the form of four Stinger missiles. After a couple of days of haggling, they allegedly told the undercover FBI men they intended to sell the Stingers to the Taliban, "an organization which the defendants indicated was the same as al-Qaeda," reads the indictment...