U.S. officials appear to be distancing themselves from early reports that two men who had flown from the U.S. to Amsterdam are considered suspects in a terror plot.
The theory that the men may have been on a test run for a future terror attack is now considered unlikely, said a U.S. government official speaking on the condition of anonymity.
The two Yemeni men arrested at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport were being questioned on Tuesday about suspicious items found in their baggage, including a knife, box cutter and cellphones taped to an empty Pepto-Bismol bottle.
Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi were also questioned about their itineraries. They were both supposed to fly from Chicago to Virginia's Washington Dulles International Airport. But both men missed their flight out of Chicago, and were both placed on a direct flight to Amsterdam.
The U.S. official who spoke to The Associated Press on Tuesday said the men did not know each other and were not travelling together.
Both men's final destination was supposed to be Sana'a, Yemen. Neither man is on any U.S. terror watch list, White House spokesperson Robert Gibbs told CNN Tuesday.
The official also said that the suspicious items were found when customs officials discovered a passenger was missing from the plane flying from Washington Dulles to Dubai. Officials called the plane back to the gate to remove the passenger's luggage, and then found the suspicious items.
CNN's Sandra Endo said the series of circumstances led authorities to suspect the men.
"Both men sat just a few seats apart and that is when local authorities and authorities across the country and now into Amsterdam found the suspicious behaviour and put it all together," Endo told CTV's Canada AM.
The men were arrested in Amsterdam. They weren't charged but prosecutors said Tuesday morning they were being held "on suspicion of a conspiracy to a terrorist criminal act."
Dutch law allows police to hold suspects for up to three days and 15 hours without laying charges. Later Tuesday, a Dutch prosecutor would not say why the two men were still being held despite doubts they were involved in a terror plot.
"We are taking it seriously. Otherwise we would not have arrested them," said Theo D'Anjou of the Dutch national prosecutor's office. Anjou added that Dutch officials are investigating "to see whether we can charge them, and if we can charge them, with what."
Al Soofi had a Michigan address, but Alabama's homeland security director, Jim Walker, said al Soofi had been living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama and had been working at a convenience store for the last three months.
Al Soofi was questioned as he passed through security in Birmingham on his way to Chicago. He told authorities he was carrying $7,000 in cash, which is within the legal amount.
According to reports federal air marshals were also on the flight to Amsterdam. It's not clear whether they were already scheduled to be there, or if authorities placed the marshals on the plane to keep an eye on the men.
It is not illegal to carry knives or taped cellphones or watches in checked baggage.
