[4] In the build-up to the Iraq War in early 2003, dozens of North Africans (mainly Algerians) were arrested in the United Kingdom, France and Spain on charges of preparing ricin and other chemical weapons.

Colin Powell and others trumpeted the arrests as proof of the threat posed by the Zarqawi-Chechen-Pankisi ricin network, which has now been expanded to include the Ansar al-Islam of Kurdish northern Iraq.

Sergei Ivanov reported that the Spanish suspects had been trained in the Pankisi Gorge by Al-Qaeda terrorists and even claimed that Osama Bin Laden may have been hiding somewhere in the Akhmeta Municipality.

It was falsely believed that prominent mujahid leader Ibn al-Khattab was among the dead, according to allegations that Omar Mohammed Ali Al Rammah reportedly witnessed him die in that incident.

[12] In October 2002, the South Ossetian government viewed the operations in the Pankisi Gorge as a threat to their breakaway state, calling up the separatist reservists for a potential all out conflict with Georgia.

Specifically, the Georgian government cited a massive increase in crime in South Ossetia, claiming that the separatists did not have a functioning security service to protect its residents.