Gust Lascaris Avrakotos (January 14, 1938 – December 1, 2005) was an American case officer and the Afghanistan Task Force Chief at the Central Intelligence Agency.

[1] The book was the basis of the film Charlie Wilson's War, released in 2007, in which Avrakotos is portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Avrakotos was born on January 14, 1938, in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the son of Oscar, a Greek American soft drink manufacturer from the island of Lemnos, and his wife Zafira.

[2][4][a] After working selling beer and cigarettes to bars frequented by immigrants from eastern and central Europe, Avrakotos had finished paying off the family debts by 1959.

[7] Avrakotos initially felt like an outsider at the CIA, which was heavily reliant on White Anglo-Saxon Protestants from Ivy League universities.

"[8] Although he developed friendships with some of the officers in the organization, "he came to loathe a certain type of blue blood with a rage that bordered on class hatred", according to journalist George Crile.

[10] Following the 1967 Greek coup d'état and the establishment of a far-right military junta, Avrakotos became the main liaison point for the CIA and the regime.

[4] He had built strong links with the members of the junta; Crile wrote that the colonels: had all started off life as peasants before joining the army, and they felt a kinship with this charismatic, working-class American whose parents had come from Lemnos.

Two of the Iranian businessmen he recruited provided real-time information to the CIA on security changes at the Embassy of the United States, Tehran during Operation Eagle Claw.

He was concerned that he had been typecast in the position of an officer who undertakes such dirty work, and was delighted to be assigned as station chief in Helsinki, Finland.

[18] The position in the Latin America division was only temporary and in late 1982, Avrakotos soon found a position with the agency's Near East desk, which included oversight of the CIA's work in Afghanistan, including involvement in Operation Cyclone, the CIA program to arm and finance the Afghan mujahideen.

[19] His early work in the group involved sourcing weapons and ammunition for the mujahideen, initially .303 rounds for the 100,000 First World War-era Lee–Enfield rifles.

[20] He was sent to the United Kingdom to procure the ammunition, and also assisted in Britain's covert operations to the mujahideen, providing MI6 with the money and equipment they needed.

[24][c] In 1984, Avrakotos appointed Michael G. Vickers from the CIA's paramilitary group to Operation Cyclone to revamp the strategy for the mujahideen.

[26] Vickers urged them to drop the Lee-Enfield in favor of a mix of weapons like the AK-47 and 14.5mm heavy machine guns, and to introduce new tactics, training, and logistics.

[31] In 1986, Avrakotos was concerned about a plan by Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, a staff member of the National Security Council to trade arms in exchange for hostages – the Iran–Contra affair.

[41] Many of those who knew Avrakotos in a non-professional capacity did not know of his work at the CIA, particularly in regard to Afghanistan, which changed in 2003 when Criles published Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History, his history of Operation Cyclone, which brought him into the public eye.

[1] The actor and producer Tom Hanks bought the rights to the book, which was the basis of the film Charlie Wilson's War, released in 2007, in which Avrakotos is portrayed by Philip Seymour Hoffman, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.