Suspect airline pair may have been rehearsing terror attack

Two airline passengers arrested after scans revealed suspicious items in their luggage may have been on a dry run for a terrorist attack, security sources said today.

The men were held at Amsterdam airport after flying in from the US at a time of heightened alert just days before the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terror attacks.

Among their luggage was a mobile phone taped to a medicine bottle and a knife and box cutters.

Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi had arrived on a United Airlines flight from Chicago, where their decision to change their flight plans raised questions.

One of the men, believed to be from the Detroit area, is of Yemeni origin.

US officials said they were examining if the incident was a dry run for a future terror attack and whether the men were testing the aviation security system to see if strange items and travel patterns would raise suspicion.

Officers were pursuing leads in Detroit, Birmingham, Alabama; and Memphis, Tennessee.

The White House said the men were not on any US terror watch list.

Dutch investigators questioned two men arrested at Amsterdam’s airport after US authorities found the suspicious items one of them men’s checked luggage.

The pair were arrested yesterday morning at Schiphol Airport and under Dutch law can be held without charge for six days.

Al Soofi was questioned as he went through security in Alabama on his way to Chicago.

He said he was carrying a lot of cash. Screeners found $7,000 (€5,500) on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money.

Security also found multiple mobile phones taped together and multiple watches taped together in his checked baggage.

Al Soofi was supposed to fly from Chicago to Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, and then on to Amsterdam. But when he got to Chicago, he changed his travel plans to take a direct flight to Amsterdam.

Al Murisi also changed his travel plans in Chicago to take a direct flight to Amsterdam, raising suspicion among US officials. Federal Air marshals were on the flight from Chicago to Amsterdam.

A Homeland Security spokeswoman said once officials found suspicious items in luggage associated with two passengers on Sunday night’s flight, they notified the Dutch authorities.

“The items were not deemed to be dangerous in and of themselves,” she said. She would not identify the passengers.

It is not illegal to carry knives or taped mobile phones and watches in checked baggage.

Dutch prosecutors said the two men were Yemeni citizens who are being treated as suspects in a conspiracy to commit a terrorist act.

They said the men were being held “on suspicion of a conspiracy to a terrorist criminal act.”

It will be announced in a few days if they will be charged.