The Obama administration weighs sending man-portable air defense systems (MANPADS) to the mercenaries who are committed to overthrowing the Syrian government. However, it has remained opposed to this day for fear of seeing them turn up in other theaters of operation and used against its ally, Israel.

Hence, the CIA has been mulling two options :
– Either to restrict missile firing to referenced mercenaries, who would be identified through a fingerprint-keyed security device;
– Or deactivate the missiles if they leave a GPS-defined perimeter.

However, these two options seem difficult to implement:
– The Agency would have to create a fingerprint database on the mercenaries, but it would not prevent someone from obtaining a copy of the fingerprints and succeed in operating the MANPADS;
– Limiting their use exclusively to Syria would not protect the Israeli airforce when bombing targets inside the country;
– Above all, it is not clear how to ensure that these control systems will not be shut off.

The mercenaries in Syria insist that these weapons are indispensable to ward off the Syrian army and that they played a key role against the Soviets in Afghanistan.