Dutch police detains two Yemenis on US flight

Dutch police in Schiphol Airport arrested two Yemeni men, residents of the United States over fears of a terrorist plot.
 
The two men were identified as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi. The two men arrived in Amsterdam and were charged with “preparing a terrorist attack,” but Dutch airport police would say only that the men were arrested at Schiphol airport Monday morning “at the request of the judicial police.” Dutch police have questioned the two after U.S. authorities spotted “suspicious items” in their luggage.
 
One man’s bags contained a mobile phone strapped to a medicine bottle, knives and watches, said U.S. officials. However, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security said none of the items were dangerous “in and of themselves”.
 
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security confirmed it had informed Dutch authorities that two men travelling from Chicago to Amsterdam had packed “suspicious items” in their luggage.
 
But the department declined to say whether it had requested the arrest of the two men, and how and why they were allowed to board the flight despite the discovery of multiple suspicious objects in at least one of their bags.
 
It is likely that they will appear in court later before a judge who will decide whether they should be released or remanded into custody pending possible charges of preparing a terrorist attack, says the BBC’s Geraldine Coughlan in the Netherlands Air marshals.
 
One of the two men, who started his journey in Birmingham, Alabama, was reportedly stopped there because of his “bulky clothing”, ABC News reports.
 
Security staff found one mobile phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol, three other mobile phones taped together and several watches,
 
also taped together. A box-cutter and three large knives were also found. But the man was cleared for travel, as no explosives were found, the US network said, quoting officials.
 
“The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves and as we share information with our international partners Dutch authorities were notified of the suspicious items,” the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement.
 
Once at Chicago, one of the pair checked his luggage onto a flight for Yemen but boarded a flight to Amsterdam, reports say. When officials became aware of this they ordered the luggage to be removed from the Yemen-bound aircraft, media said.
 
Dutch and U.S. authorities have been on alert since a Nigerian man was detained in the U.S. on Christmas Day 2009 after flying from Amsterdam to Detroit trying to detonate a bomb.
 
NBC News reported that the U.S. concern about the latest incident was “low”, but the authorities wanted to make sure this was not an attempt to test airline security prior to a future attack.
 
The New York Times quoted a man who said he was one of the passenger’s cousins saying there was a resonable explanation.

He said his cousin had probably been taking electronic equipment and medication back home and had simply taped together items intended for the same recipient.

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