"Dry Bomb Run" Arrestees To Not Be Charged

By Staff in News on Sep 1, 2010 2:30PM

Ahmed Mohammed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Musri, the two men arrested Monday in Amsterdam for having "suspicious items" in their luggage on a flight from O'Hare, will not be charged with plotting a future terror attack, sources close to the FBI investigation told the Associated Press yesterday. The FBI investigation into the two men found that they do not know each other, the suspicious items found in al Soofi's luggage were not being used for a "dry bomb run," and that al Soofi's and al Musri's change of flight plans to catch direct flights from Chicago to Amsterdam was coincidental.

For international flights, passengers must travel with their luggage at all times. When al Soofi and al Musri made their changes in travel plans while the luggage went to their original destinations, it raised suspicion to TSA security officials. A TSA spokesperson said that it is not uncommon for items such as watches and cell phones to be taped to larger items in luggage bound for countries such as Yemen, but that screeners have been trained to identify such items as a heightened security risk.

The arrests come at a time of heightened security as the country is approaching the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.