Terror threat: Dutch hold two on US flight

DUTCH police questioned yesterday two US residents of Yemeni descent arrested after flying into the Netherlands from Chicago in what officials fear may have been a dry run for a terror attack.

The White House promised US authorities will conduct a "vigorous investigation" into the incident, which officials don't exclude may have simply been a misunderstanding.

US airport security screeners found suspicious-looking items in the men's checked luggage late Sunday before they flew out of Chicago, including a cellphone taped to a medicine bottle, three cellphones taped together, watches taped together, and box cutters and knives, according to US news reports.

One of the men, a 48-year-old, was also carrying US$7,000 in cash.

US officials notified Dutch authorities the men's luggage included "suspicious items," the Department of Homeland Security said.

The pair was arrested upon landing at Schiphol Airport early Monday. US air marshals had been aboard the flight, officials said.

ABC News reported the men may have been testing airport security by concealing "mock bombs" in their luggage in possible preparation for a future attack.

"We're going to do a vigorous investigation to see if we can match up any of the circumstances that were involved with any intelligence that we might have," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN television.

"The intelligence community and law enforcement are busy looking through all of these events as we speak," he said, adding neither of the men was on US surveillance lists. The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that "the items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves" and a law enforcement official told AFP the men "did not have prohibited items on their persons or their carry on luggage."

"As far as we know, national security has not been endangered," Judith Sluiter, a spokeswoman for the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism told AFP.

Dutch officials were due to hold a news conference at 1400 GMT.

ABC News, which first reported the incident, identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi, of Detroit, Michigan, and Hezam al-Murisi. It said US officials had requested the arrests, a claim not confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security.

ABC also said the pair was charged with "preparing a terrorist attack," but US law enforcement officials told The New York Times that the men had not been charged and incident may have been a misunderstanding.

The men boarded United Airlines flight 908 from Chicago, Illinois to Amsterdam despite apparently raising a slew of security concerns beginning in Birmingham, Alabama, where Soofi reportedly started his journey.

Airport screeners there stopped him because of his "bulky clothing." But as no explosives were discovered, Soofi was cleared to fly to Chicago.

Several US media sources reported that he checked his luggage on a flight bound from Chicago for the Yemeni capital Sanaa, with scheduled stops in both Dulles International Airport — just outside Washington — and Dubai.

Reports said that officials at Dulles Airport, upon realising that Soofi was not on the same plane as his bag, recalled the flight and removed the luggage.

But The New York Times, which reported both men were US residents, said Soofi checked his bag onto a Yemen-bound flight from Birmingham, parting ways with his luggage in Alabama and not Illinois.

CBS News said the men had no links to each other and investigations were focused solely on Soofi.

The White House spokesman said officials were still piecing together exactly how events unfolded. "They went through some extra screening," Gibbs told CNN.

"Their bags were pulled off of a flight because they were not on that flight.

"So obviously extra precautions were taken as some of these circumstances popped up, and now obviously the next step is getting some answers to why those curious circumstances happened in the first place," he said.

The Times quoted a man claiming to be Soofi's cousin as saying his relative's luggage contents were not surprising, as he had probably been taking electronic equipment and medication back home and had simply taped together items intended for the same recipient.

Dutch counterterrorism expert Edwin Bakker told AFP it was possible the incident may have amounted to "a test of the counterterrorism measures in place" at Schiphol.

"The fact that they did not take the same flight as their luggage is a good reason to interrogate them," he added. "It is very strange."

AFP