Author: AFP
Publication: The Times of India
Date: August 31, 2010
URL: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/world/us/Dutch-police-arrest-two-terror-suspects-on-US-flight-Report/articleshow/6465436.cms#ixzz0yCZ72nap
Dutch police have charged two men taken off
a flight from the United States with "preparation of a terrorist attack,"
ABC News reported Monday, citing US and Dutch law enforcement officials.
A spokesman for the Dutch public prosecutor
told the news network that the men were arrested "at the request of American
authorities," adding that "the investigation is ongoing."
ABC News identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed
Nasser al-Soofi and Hezam al-Murisi, and said Soofi was from Yemen, citing
one of the man's neighbors.
The men were apparently allowed to board a
United Airlines flight from Chicago, Illinois to Amsterdam despite a slew
of security concerns, beginning in Birmingham, Alabama, where Soofi appears
to have started his journey.
Airport screeners there reportedly stopped
him because of his "bulky clothing." They uncovered he was carrying
7,000 dollars in cash, and then opened his luggage, ABC News said.
There they found a cellphone taped to a Pepto-Bismol
bottle, three cellphones taped together and several watches taped together,
but because no explosives were discovered, he was cleared for the flight to
Chicago.
Once at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport,
he appears to have checked his luggage on a flight bound for Yemen, with scheduled
stops in both Washington's Dulles airport and Dubai. But he did not board
the flight.
Instead, he was joined by Murisi, ABC said,
and the pair boarded a flight to Amsterdam.
The flight carrying Soofi's luggage reportedly
travelled to Washington's Dulles airport, from where it was about to depart
to Dubai and then on to Yemen when officials learned his bags were on board
but he was not.
The plane was ordered to return to the gate,
where the baggage was removed, though officials said no explosives were detected.
Soofi and Murisi were detained when their
flight arrived in Amsterdam.
