Dutch police questioned Tuesday 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. Dutch officials declined to provide information on the incident during the morning, postponing a planned news conference to 1400 GMT.
The Washington Post said US airport security screeners found a cellphone taped to a medicine bottle, three cellphones taped together, watches taped together, box cutters and knives in the men's checked luggage before they departed from Chicago late Sunday.
One of the men, a 48-year-old, was also carrying 7,000 dollars in cash. US officials notified Dutch authorities that the men's luggage contained "suspicious items," the Department of Homeland Security said. The pair was arrested upon landing at Schiphol Airport early Monday. 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.
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 Co-ordinator for Counterterrorism told AFP.
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