Airport screeners [in Chicago] reportedly stopped [one of two men eventually arrested] because of his "bulky clothing." They uncovered he was carrying 7,000 dollars in cash, and then opened his luggage, ABC News said.The plane was sent back to the gate and the luggage searched when the airline realize there was no passenger associated with the checked baggage. No explosives were found.
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.
It sure looks like they were testing means of attack. Or perhaps someone else with explosives was supposed to link up with their suspicious luggage somewhere on the path to complete a bomb.
It's like presidential outreach means nothing to these people.