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U.S. security officials are still probing whether two men detained after flying from Chicago to Amsterdam are connected - whether their suspicious luggage could be evidence they were rehearsing a terrorist plot.

A federal law enforcement official told CBS News' Pat Milton that the incident "raised eyebrows" and that investigators are still actively pursuing it.

The men both missed flights from Chicago to Washington, where they were supposed to continue to other destinations, and both were rebooked on the same flight directly to Amsterdam. That coincidence raised investigators' suspicions.

When Customs officials discovered one passenger was not on the flight from Washington to Dubai, they called the plane back to the gate and removed his luggage. It was then they discovered suspicious items in his bag, including a cell phone taped to a medicine bottle, multiple cell phones and watches taped together, and a knife and box cutter

Both men are being held by Dutch authorities in Amsterdam on suspicion of conspiring to commit a terrorist act.

In the U.S., officials have provided seemingly conflicting information about whether the events are seen as a "dry run" for a terror plot or a bizarre misunderstanding just days before the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

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.

But investigators are still seeking to examine any possible email and cell phone traffic to see if one or both of the men may have been involved with some plotter or organization, a law enforcement source told CBS' Pat Milton.

The Amsterdam arrests came at a time of heightened alert less than two weeks before the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks. Before officials began casting doubt on the test run theory, FBI agents were chasing down leads in three American cities, a law enforcement official said.

Both of the detained men missed flights to Washington 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 television Tuesday.

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