American officials said Tuesday they did not believe the two Yemenis held at the Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, after flying from Chicago, were planning a terrorist attack, said reports.
There is speculation the whole thing could have been a dry-run to test the security alertness at U.S. airports.
The two--Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al-Soofi and Hezem al-Murisi
--were arrested by Dutch police at the instance of Washington after it was found that they had failed to board a U.S. internal flight though they checked luggage onto it.
They are being held "on suspicion of a conspiracy to a terrorist criminal act." But, Dutch authorities did not either charge them or release them until Tuesday.
"We are taking it seriously; otherwise, we would not have arrested them," said spokesman for the Dutch national prosecutor's office.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in a statement did an about-turn, advising people against jumping to conclusions.
"This matter is under investigation but as of right now, these two passengers have not been charged with any crime in the United States and we caution you against jumping to any conclusions," it said.
Monday morning, the two men bound for Yemeni capital Sanaa, were arrested on their landing at Amsterdam.
U.S. officials now believe that the two missed their flight from Chicago's O'Hare to Washington's Dulles International Airport and were re-routed by American Airlines to travel via Amsterdam.
However, their failure to make the journey after checking in the baggage made the authorities call back the flight.
Earlier, one of the men was stopped by airport officials at Birmingham, Alabama, after currency worth $7000, besides knives and watches along with a mobile phone strapped to a medicine bottle, was found in his luggage.
He was allowed to continue his journey, as the items in the luggage were not judged a threat.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the man had not been on any terror watch lists.
Klaas-Arjen Krikke, counsel for one of men, was quoted as saying that his client was returning to his native land after resigning his job, and faulted the way details of the incident were released.
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