Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi

Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi were arrested on suspicion that they were on a dry run, a test to commit an act of terror.

Now, an AP source claims that it's unlikely the men are involved in a plot.

The FBI probe of two men arrested in Amsterdam after suspicious items turned up in one of the men's luggage is finding they were probably not on a test run for a future terror attack, a U.S. official said Tuesday, casting doubt on earlier suggestions even as Dutch authorities held the pair on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

The U.S. does not expect to charge the men, a law enforcement official said. The two men arrested in Amsterdam — both traveling to Yemen — did not know each other and were not traveling together, a U.S. government official said.

The officials spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss the investigation.

...Earlier, U.S. officials said they were investigating whether the two men had been conducting a dry run for a potential terrorist attack. But as the probe evolved, officials said that appeared unlikely.

Both of the detained men missed flights to Dulles International Airport from Chicago, and United Airlines then booked them on the same flight to Amsterdam, the U.S. government official said. The men were sitting near each other on the flight, but not together.

The men were not on any U.S. terror watch lists, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told CNN Tuesday.

When Customs officials discovered one passenger was not on the flight from Dulles to Dubai, they called the plane back to the gate and removed his luggage. It was then they discovered suspicious items in his bag, a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter, according to another U.S. official who had been briefed on the investigation.

Kip Hawley, the former Transportation Security administrator, said it is not unusual to find items like watches and cell phones bound together on flights to countries like Yemen.

...A U.S. official identified the men as Ahmed Mohamed Nasser al Soofi and Hezam al Murisi. Al Soofi had a Detroit address. Alabama's director of homeland security, Jim Walker, said he had been living in Tuscaloosa, Ala., and working at a convenience store for about the last three months. He said there was nothing that al Soofi had done in Alabama that brought him to the attention of Alabama officials.

Al Soofi was questioned by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration as he went through security in Birmingham, Ala., Sunday on his way to Chicago, one of the officials said. He told the authorities he was carrying a lot of cash. Screeners found $7,000 on him, but he was not breaking any law by carrying that much money. It is not unusual for people to carry large amounts of cash when they travel to Third World countries.

Good grief.

How many more red flags are necessary?

It's common to travel with a cell phone taped to a bottle of Pepto-Bismol? Really?

It's common to pack multiple cell phones and watches taped together? Really?

It's common to travel with a knife and BOX CUTTER? REALLY?

Nothing suspicious about that.

Yeah, right.

Al Soofi has a Detroit address but had been living in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and worked at a convenience store for about the last three months.

"[T]here was nothing that al Soofi had done in Alabama that brought him to the attention of Alabama officials."

So what?

Who cares what authorities knew of him there?

What matters is what they know of him now -- on an international flight with $7,000 in his pocket, and some really disturbing items in his luggage.

Robert Gibbs says not to worry. The men weren't on terror watch lists.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the terrorist who failed to bring down Northwest Airlines Flight 253 on Christmas Day, wasn't on a watch list either.

The suspect, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, was added to a catch-all terrorism-related database when his father, a Nigerian banker, reported concerns about his son's "radicalization and associations" to the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria, a senior administration official said. Abdulmutallab was not placed on any watch list for flights into the United States, however, because there was "insufficient derogatory information available" to include him, another administration official said.

Do you trust the watch lists?

I don't.