Dutch arrest two men on US flight

Dutch prosecutors said two Yemenis arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport yesterday after US security found a cellphone taped to a bottle in their luggage were being held for possible terrorism offences.

“The men are held in custody on suspicion of a conspiracy to a terrorist criminal act,” prosecution spokesman Theo d’Anjou told reporters at the airport.

A judge will decide by tomorrow whether to charge the pair or release them, he added.

The White House promised that US authorities would conduct a “vigorous investigation” into the incident which some officials suggested may have been a dry run for a terror attack. But US officials did not rule out that the incident may have simply been a misunderstanding.

Mr D’Anjou said the two men were arrested by Dutch border police shortly after their arrival at Schiphol at 9.15 a.m. on Monday on a flight from Chicago.

The men, of Yemeni nationality, were due to have travelled onwards to the Yemeni capital Sanaa.

“The men’s luggage had ended up on an internal flight to Washington,” said Mr d’Anjou. “In this luggage mobile phones were found, taped, one phone was taped to a plastic bottle. These phones were seized in the US and stayed there,” he said.

“The luggage on the flight to Amsterdam was searched, but nothing suspicious was found.”

US news reports said airport security scanners found suspicious-looking items in the men’s checked luggage 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. One of the men, a 48-year-old, was also carrying $7,000 in cash.

ABC News identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi, of Detroit, Michigan, and Hezam al-Murisi. US media sources said that Mr Soofi checked his luggage on a flight from Chicago to Sanaa, with scheduled stops at Dulles Inter­national Airport – just outside Washington – and Dubai. Officials at Dulles Airport, on realising that Mr Soofi was not on the same plane as his bag, reportedly recalled the flight and removed the luggage.

Mr D’Anjou confirmed the arrests “took place on the basis of information provided by the US authorities”, who were being consulted in the course of the investigation.

It was not clear why the men were allowed to board a flight.

Dutch counter-terrorism expert Edwin Bakker said it was possible the incident may have been “a test of the counter-terrorism 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.”

But the New York Times quoted a man claiming to be Mr 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.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN Television that intelligence and law enforcement officials were piecing together the events, adding that neither of the arrested men was on US surveillance lists.