The CIA begins supplying select Afghan mujahidin guerrillas with shoulder-launched Stinger surface-to-air missiles to help them attack Soviet forces and shoot down helicopter gunships. The missiles become legendary and falsely credit the missiles (and the United States) with turning the tide of the Afghan-Soviet war even though by 1986 the Soviet Army is exhausted and Soviet soldier deaths in Afghanistan is beginning to have severe domestic consequences back home.
The missiles, many of which go missing, will have other consequences though. In the fall of 1993, there are reports that bin Laden dispatches a team to retrieve Stinger missiles in Afghanistan and transport them to Somalia, where they are used against American forces. And in February 2000, the CIA begins receiving information about a possible al Qaeda plot to attack Air Force One with Stinger missiles when President Clinton was visiting Pakistan.