Punkisi's Role in European Terror Plot Remains Unclear

As a terrorist investigation in Britain expands following the discovery of traces of deadly gas, Georgian officials are disputing a report that the poisonous substance may have been produced in the Pankisi Gorge and later transferred to the suspects.

British police raided a London mosque on January 20, more than two weeks after authorities found ricin, a deadly gas derived from castor beans, in an apartment in another part of London. Seven men were taken into custody during the police raid. Though authorities have not announced formal charges, they are reportedly investigating a network of Algerian extremists with connections in Afghanistan and Chechnya. Already four North African men, who were taken into custody January 13, are facing terrorism-related charges in connection with the ricin discovery at the London apartment.

British and French investigators are said to be pursuing a possible Pankisi connection to the London incident, as well as to earlier incidents in France that were foiled by law enforcement officials in late 2002. The London Times quoted intelligence sources on January 12 as saying the gorge "was used by al Qaeda units fleeing Afghanistan to set up a new training camp." And some of the newspaper's sources believed "a terrorist mastermind with knowledge of toxins and chemical weapons was at a makeshift camp in the gorge, similar to al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan."

Such reports undermine claims by Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze and others, that special military operations last summer cleared the Pankisi Gorge of renegade fighters with ties either to the Afghan or Chechen conflicts. Before these operations the gorge was allegedly used by Chechen guerrillas fighting the Russians in neighboring Chechnya, and by drug traffickers. [For background see the Eurasia Insight archives]. At a January 14 news conference, Security Ministry Spokesman Nika Laliashvili insisted the entire Pankisi Gorge is "under absolute control."

While the British embassy in Tbilisi said it had no evidence tracing current suspects to Pankisi, a source at the French embassy said that "anything is possible." But the French source added: "as yet, there is no reason for believing that the persons arrested in France have not only been trained in Chechnya but also in Pankisi." Meanwhile, the Russian news agency Interfax reported on January 13 that Russian special forces killed a Chechen fighter with instructions for making poisons, including ricin.

Georgian Minister of State Security Valeri Khaburdzania has suggested that Georgian intelligence helped lead to the arrests of terrorist suspects in Britain. "We do not rule out the possibility of these individuals having been arrested on the basis of information we supplied our British friends with," Khaburdzania told Georgian television on January 17. Khaburdzania insisted there was no "material evidence confirming that ricin or any other similar poisonous substance had been produced or was available in Pankisi," though he also said that someone certainly could have found ricin (in benign uses) in the area. Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze told the Moscow Times on January 13 that "one or two men in the Pankisi Gorge