NBC News' Pete Williams reports:

U.S. law enforcement officials confirm that a man who flew from the United States to Amsterdam has been detained by Dutch authorities after some odd things were found in his suitcase before he left. But two U.S. officials tell NBC News that he wasn’t detained at the request of American authorities and that he's simply being held temporarily by Dutch police while the matter is sorted out.

Both the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security say concern over the incident is quite low.

ABC News reported Monday that two men were picked up at Schiphol, the main Dutch airport near Amsterdam. U.S. officials tell NBC News the second man is thought to be uninvolved and was simply sitting by coincidence next to the first man, who's from Detroit.

The man aroused suspicion because although the man was flying from Chicago to Amsterdam, he sent his luggage on a different route, bound for Yemen.

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In addition, "odd things" were found in his suitcase before he left the United States — watches and cell phones taped together, for example, and a cell phone taped to a Pepto-Bismol bottle. Officials say that no explosives were found and that security screeners determined that none of the materials were hazardous.

As strange as it may sound, travelers heading overseas often tape things together in their luggage for fear that the items will be damaged in transit, one of the officials pointed out.

Neither of the two men were previously of concern to law enforcement, a law enforcement official says, nor is there anything to suggest that they had ill intent.

A U.S. official says it appears the Dutch weren't asked to hold either man but were instead notified of the odd behavior and apparently decided on their own to detain them.

Update 6:56 p.m. ET: We've added a link to the full transcript below the video.

Here's the complete video of President Barack Obama's interview today with Brian Williams of NBC News:

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Read our full report here and the full transcript here.

Here's the early version of our story about the Obama interview:

Obama: I'll 'make sure we get the job done'

The "Nightly News" crew is still cutting the raw video; we'll post it there and here when it's ready.

Also, don't forget to check out the extensive coverage in our special section on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.

On the economy, President Obama says the recovery is a long-term effort that will pay dividends even if it's painful now. It's hard when you're right in the middle of it, he says.

The interview's over after only about 20 minutes as Brian Williams says he can see aides fidgeting off-camera. The last question is about Iraq and Afghanistan; Obama says he's confident of the policy and the timetables in both countries.

President Obama chuckles when Brian Williams asks him about polls that show may Americans still believe he is a Muslim. He says he doesn't pay much attention to those polls, because "I can't spend all my time with my birth certificate plastered on my forehead."

"I don't think the American people want me to spend all my time on it," he says.

Obama is clearly intent on casting himself as above the political fray, saying American politics is in its "silly season." For example, he swears he didn't watch any of Glenn Beck's "Restoring Honor" rally on the National Mall yesterday and says he doesn't find it surprising that "a Glenn Beck can stir up some of the people."

"I'm making decisions that are not necessarily good for the nightly news and not good for the next election, but for the next generations," he says.

Huddled under two umbrellas outside in the rain, President Obama and Brian Williams are talking about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Obama says Katrina made it clear that "the real protection for New Orleans and the coast are the wetlands." The oil spill — and Obama says he's convinced there's still a lot of oil out there in the gulf — is a new "opportunity for us to take a look comprehensively and ask how do we do things better and how do we do things smarter than we've done before."

Rejecting critics' characterization of the oil spill as "Obama's Katrina," the president says flatly, "That is not accurate."

"We've got to put all that stuff aside and come in and make sure we get the job," he says.

Update 4:04 p.m. ET: President Obama arrived at the interview site and greeted Brian Williams. Their interview is under way now, about 15 minutes early.

______

Brian Williams, anchor and managing editor of "NBC Nightly News," is interviewing President Barack Obama in New Orleans shortly. We'll be live-blogging the interview and will have a full story shortly after it's over. Check back here here frequent updates from the interview, and watch Williams' full report tonight on "NBC Nightly News."

The interview is planned for about 4:15 p.m. ET, but exact timing is fluid because rain in New Orleans has changed some of the program for the fifth-anniversary commemoration of Hurricane Katrina.

Plus, the president made an unscheduled lunch stop at the Parkway Bakery and Tavern with his wife, Michelle, and their daughters, Sasha and Malia. We knew you'd like to know Obama had the shrimp, even though a young man in line behind him advised him to get the surf 'n' turf.

"There was a time I could do that," Obama said. "When I was your age."

By Kerry Sanders, NBC News Correspondent

ABOARD THE JEAN CHARCOT – As we continue to float two-plus miles above the wreck of the Titanic, there was a significant scientific development Friday.

The Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) nicknamed “Ginger” and “Mary Ann” that were launched earlier this week to crisscross the ocean floor and retrieve information have now come home to the ship.

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They left on a pre-determined route: “Ginger” traveled north and south and “MaryAnn” traveled east and west.

As they traveled about 40 yards above the sea bed, following a pattern like “mowing the yard,” the two AUV’s fired outside-scan-sonar.

Woods Hole Oceanographic teams working with the Waitt Institute, which owns the AUV’s, have now downloaded the side-scan sonar.

The picture that is emerging is a first of its kind, stunning image of the five-mile, by three-mile area where the Titanic came to rest.

The images are color-coded, but with some expert input, what you may not see at first glance becomes quite obvious.

Titanic expedition leader David Gallo says this is an “awesome” moment.

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He and his team knew the Titanic broke into two pieces, but nobody realized the debris field was a large as it is.

Upwards of 40 percent of the area where the Titanic sank has never been mapped or documented – until now.

Up next: 3-D images. If all goes according to the plan, those images will come to the surface by Saturday morning.

This underwater geology is science you can clearly follow with a good expert, so click on the video to follow what the maps mean.

Related links from Kerry Sanders:
Underwater equipment launched in Titanic search
Keeping an eye on the weather enroute to Titanic wreckage
Diving down to document Titanic debris

By Ron Mott, NBC News Correspondent

WAVELAND, Miss. – When you're counting the days, five years can seem like a really long time. And, yet, when you're trying to recover from arguably the most devastating natural disaster in U.S. history – day by day – five years goes by like that, with far less progress than one might have hoped or expected.

That's the reality I found on Mississippi's Gulf Coast, and it took me a bit by surprise. I was certain they would be farther along. I was wrong.

While so much has been done to recover from the knockout punch that Hurricane Katrina delivered, there is still so much work unfinished – if it's even started, in many instances.

Having spent a lot of time reporting from here over the past five years, I was struck by how the once-brisk pace of rebuilding appears to have stalled. Empty lots are plentiful, and the sound of circular saws and hammering no longer fills the background as much as it used to.

Some blame the economic slowdown, others the insurance companies, and still others cite new building requirements along the coast that simply make it more expensive and risky to return.

Nevertheless, people continue coming back to the place they call home, undeterred by the obstacles and passage of time. People fortunate enough to afford the costs of rebuilding were typically the first to get back on their feet. And then there are those fortunate enough to find organizations and individuals willing to help them stand again.

So much generosity
Sylvester Harrington Jr. and his family here are among the lucky ones. Floodwaters poured into their one-story ranch-style home on Aug. 29, 2005, forcing Harrington and two relatives to the attic to survive.

When the water receded, the Harringtons were left with a mess they didn't have the means to restore.

But one day Harrington met a gentleman named Butch Jones, who worked for a group called Mission on the Bay – a faith-based joint venture that sent armies of volunteers up and down the Gulf Coast, giving families like the Harringtons free labor to help them pick up the pieces and put their lives back together.

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In the Harrington's case, everything was free – nails, siding, drywall, paint, flooring, you name it. There was so much generosity, Harrington said, that it often left him speechless and in tears, as this was the only way, he added, his family could return.

"I wouldn't have been finished yet," Harrington said, "because I didn't have the capital. Our insurance company gave us $1,700. That's what we got paid.”

The Harringtons, like many coastal residents, did not have flood insurance. He said his insurance company wrote a check for minor roof damage caused by the wind.

Good things coming out of tough times
Jones, Harrington’s connection to Mission on the Bay, also lost his home in Gulfport to the storm. But, he says he also found a gift in the aftermath of Katrina – a wife.

Elizabeth Wheatley was in charge of the outreach ministry for Lutheran Episcopal Services in Mississippi, which organized Mission on the Bay’s massive volunteer drive that attracted helping hands from all over the world.

Through the dirty, exhausting work of mucking out houses and starting over, Jones and Wheatley uncovered love.

And while they will soon leave the area for a new life in northern Mississippi – with Mission on the Bay ending as the fifth anniversary of Katrina is marked – the couple say they are leaving their hearts here.

"It could be sad to say that we can't continue, but we look back at the almost 800 families that we've rebuilt their homes or we built new homes for," Jones said. "Although there is a great deal that's left to be done, the people on the Mississippi Gulf Coast – with the help of thousands upon thousands of people – are resilient. And they are a hope-filled people. And, they're not going to be stopped."

The recovery continues, of course. Churches are moving into new sanctuaries. City halls and police departments are only now opening the doors to their new homes. Road detours are everywhere, but damage infrastructure is at last being repaired.

If only more people could say the same.

Katrina: Five years later

What's on the seafood menu today?

In addition to the omega-3 proteins we seek, there is an array of unsavory and unintentional side dishes that could come with sea creatures: heavy metals, salmonella and banned pesticides or hormones. Since the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, food safety experts have focused on the danger of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons — PAHs — in seafood from that area. And there is guilt: Eating some fish contributes to the problem of overfishing endangered species, while eating others could harm fragile ecosystems or cultures in other ways.

To help consumers make choices that are environmentally friendly and healthy, the advocacy group Food and Water Watch on Wednesday published the National Smart Seafood Guide 2010 that weighs nutritional and environmental considerations for eating 100 types of seafood — and may help take some of the anxiety out of choosing a fish dish.

"The guide comes at a critical time. We've been fielding countless questions from consumers on seafood safety after the Gulf oil spill," said Marianne Cufone, Food & Water Watch's fish program director. "Unfortunately, because of the spill, many people are considering imported seafood as a safer alternative to domestic. Often, it's not."

Failed fish
Indeed, Food and Water Watch named imported coastal farmed shrimp the worst of the worst on its "Dirty Dozen" list of seafood products that it says fail health and sustainability measures. Imported shrimp, much of it farmed in Asia, may be tainted with "antibiotic, pesticide or bacterial residues" that are not allowed in better-regulated markets.

Also on the guide's buyer-beware list are caviar from sturgeon that are endangered by poaching, overfishing, river damming and pollution; shark and Chilean seabass because of a tendency to have high mercury levels; and Atlantic and farmed salmon, because they introduce hazards to natural salmon populations.

As for the safety of seafood from the Gulf of Mexico, the guide says to keep watching for Food and Drug Administration updates amid ongoing testing. But Gulf coast commercial fishermen will likely be grateful for the perspective the guide offers on seafood safety. As they are quick to point out, their seafood — about 2 percent of the total in the U.S. market — is getting far more attention than imported seafood products. There are at least three federal agencies and a gaggle of state agencies and other health groups examining Gulf seafood and waters, and most are giving the products a clean bill of health.

"We are so much more scrutinized right now than any other food or fish coming into this country," said Ewell Smith, executive director of the Louisiana Seafood Promotion and Marketing Board. His organization is scrambling to protect the reputation of Gulf fisheries products since the broken Deepwater Horizon dumped millions of gallons of oil into the water. "In spite of all these fears that are in place, there haven't been any illnesses."

One of the U.S. Coast Guard cutters that patrolled the Deepwater Horizon oil spill returns Wednesday to its home port of St. Petersburg, Fla.

Coast Guard officials issued a statement Tuesday that the Coast Guard Cutter Venturous is scheduled to return from patrol 9:15 a.m. Wednesday after a 49-day deployment first to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill response and later to Haiti for migrant interdiction operations.

The Venturous crew was heading for a south Caribbean drug-interdiction patrol but was diverted to the spill to assume on-scene command and control for vessels 72 days after the oil started spilling, according to the ship's newsletter.

"At any given time in the first couple of weeks in the Gulf you could expect to see over 20 Coast Guard cutters in the Gulf, ranging from 87’ patrol boats to 225’ buoy tenders that were converted into oil skimmers," the newsletter said.

Crewmembers developed a communications and operations framework that will help to sustain continued oil spill response efforts in the future, the Coast Guard said.

Its sister ship, Resolute, conducted media operations out by the drill head, the Venturous newsletter said.

After BP capped the Gulf gusher, the Coast Guard Cutter Decisive took over command and control duties, the statement said.

Venturous is an 85-crew, 210-foot Reliance class cutter homeported in St. Petersburg, the Coast Guard says. Before the Gulf spill, its typical missions, according to the Coast Guard, included pursuits of drug traffickers, rescuing illegal immigrants from perilous waters, search and rescue operations and fisheries enforcement.

More details about Venturous, according to its website:

Motto: Nemo Supra, which means 'None Better.'

Builder: American Shipbuilding Co., Lorain, Ohio.

First commissioning: Sept. 12, 1968.

Decommissioned: Feb. 11, 1994.

Recommissioned after modernization: May 9, 1996.

Second life-extending makeover: March 2007.

Commanding Officer: CDR Edward M. St. Pierre.

A coalition of environmental and social nonprofits and churches on Tuesday called on the federal government to beef up seafood testing following the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

A letter drafted by the Natural Resources Defense Council on behalf of the groups calls for a review of current procedures, which have led to reopening commercial fishing in large sections of the Gulf of Mexico.

“We’re raising a few concerns about the scope of the seafood safety assessments that are going on,” said Gina Solomon, senior scientific advisor to the NRDC. “We’re not saying they are totally inadequate, or questioning a specific reopening, but there were things that gave us pause. “

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Food and Drug Administration already are moving to increase testing. NOAA and the FDA are developing a test to detect dispersants in seafood as part of an effort to assuage ongoing health concerns about the chemicals used to break up the oil as it gushed into the ocean.

The federal agencies have also been bringing in more non-government researchers to analyze the data to address concerns that the testing has not been transparent enough.

“We're taking extraordinary steps to assure a high level of confidence in the seafood," NOAA chief Jane Lubchenco, told reporters on Monday.

But the letter to the agency said portions of the safety testing are based on assumptions of average body weights that may fail to protect people who fall outside the parameters.

“They assumed that the average weight of a seafood consumer is 175 pounds,” said Solomon, a physician and scientist who studies toxic contamination for the NRDC. “That’s OK if you’re a guy, but not for most women or a kid. Those are populations we are the most concerned about.”

The letter raises concerns about the use of national consumption averages to calculate risk to seafood consumers, which would likely understate the risk to coastal communities that rely solely or largely on seafood for protein.

The letter also points out that the agencies are not testing seafood for heavy metals. At present the testing focuses on a different set of contaminants found in oil--polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs).

“Cadmium, copper, lead and mercury have all been detected in studies of crude oil,” and should be included in Gulf seafood monitoring “given the public health threat of exposures to low levels of these metals and their potential to bio-accumulate in seafood,” it said.

The full text of the letter to NOAA, can be viewed by clicking here. We will report on NOAA’s response to the letter when it is issued.

Police in Israel, where the suspect in 18 U.S. stabbings grew up, said today that the man, identified as Elias Abuelazam, 33, was believed to have been involved with drugs and stabbed a friend during a recent visit to Israel.

Acquaintances of the young Abuelazam told the Israeli newspaper Ma'ariv that he was a quiet young man who was occasionally beaten up because he was considered something of a "geek."

"That's why it's so surprising to me, this whole story," a former acquaintance told the newspaper.

Neighbors in the mixed-Arab-Jewish city of Ramle said Abuelazam left for the United States at age 20 after running afoul of "criminal elements" and getting involved with drugs. They said he intended to study to be a pharmacist but did not know whether he actually completed his studies.

On a visit to Beit She'an a few months ago, Abuelazam stabbed a friend in the neck "for no reason," a family acquaintance said.

Ramle police confirmed that the incident took place but said the victim chose not to press charges, Ma'ariv reported. They said Abuelazam got into an argument with the friend while they sat in a car, which led to a fight that ended when Abuelazam stabbed the man in the upper body with a screwdriver. The identity and condition of the man could not immediately be determined.

Abuelazam's mother locked herself in her house and refused to speak to a throng of reporters camped outside.

Mount Morris police are going to great pains to stress that Abdulla Farah, manager of the convenience store where the serial stabbing suspect worked for about a month, was "extremely cooperative" in helping them.

Farah left this afternoon with a police escort after about 100 people gathered at the store, some of them yelling threats at him, The Flint Journal reports.

"He's not a suspect here," said Mount Morris Township Police Chief Scott McKenna said. "He didn't do anything wrong."

Arab-American residents of the Flint area told the Journal they feared a backlash against people who looked Middle Eastern or Arab after the suspect was identified as Elias Abuelazam, 33, a legal U.S. resident from the mixed Arab-Jewish city of Ramle, Israel.

"It's a little bit concerning," Farhad Bol, 49, told the newspaper. "The general population in America is very understanding, but there are a few who are not."

Bol said he is Persian, not Arab, but "people don't differentiate — Arab, Persian, Muslim. It's all the same to them."

Coordinating a criminal investigation across multiple states is a daunting task, and it can lead to public disagreements over such basic aspects as the suspect's likely motive.

In simultaneous news conferences this afternoon, the prosecutor in Flint, Mich., where most of the assaults attributed to Elias Abuelazam occurred, and the police chief in Leesburg, Va., where the case against Abuelazam began coming together last week, contradicted each other over the assailant was motivated by race. Nearly all of the 18 victims, five of whom died, were African-American.

"My belief is he selected the victims of Leesburg based upon their color of their skin," Leesburg Police Chief Tom Price said.

But at almost the same time in Flint, Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton was saying that as of now, there's "no other evidence" of a racial motive.

Abuelazam's boss at the Kings Water Market in Flint, Abdulla Farah, said Abuelazam was "a good guy, a friendly guy" who got along well with African-American customers.

Mark Hosenball on Newsweek's Delassified blog reports that "both law enforcement and intelligence agencies are urgently investigating" the background of Elias Abuelazam but that "U.S. officials can find not the slightest trace of evidence or intelligence linking the man to terrorism":

Law-enforcement and intelligence officials contacted by Declassified said that whoever the suspect turns out to be, they don't believe that any connection will be found to terrorism, and that the bizarre nature of the alleged crimes bear no resemblance to the objectives or practices of any known terrorist group. Officials say their working theory is that the crimes were the product of some kind of serious mental illness. They also say that it is simply a sign of the times that when someone with what sounds like a Muslim name is implicated in a serious crime, government agencies find themselves obliged to at least look for any indications of a possible connection to terrorism.

Manatee County sheriff's investigators in Bradenton, Fla., are looking into open cases in which Elias Abuelazam, the suspect in a series of fatal stabbings, may have been involved, WTVT-TV reports.

A representative of the Fountain Lakes apartment complex, which is listed as Abuelazam's residence in court documents, told the station that Abuelazam lived there from March 9 until May 18. A background check the complex did showed only traffic offenses, the representative said.

WTVT says the Manatee County Sheriff's Office says it has been contacted by and is working with the FBI:

Sheriff's investigators are looking into open cases where Abuelazam may have been involved.

According to the sheriff's office, Abuelazam was the victim of a robbery in Manatee County on March 9, but few details about the robbery were available.

Authorities in Flint, Mich., announce the arrest of Elias Abuelazam, 33, who was charged with assault with intent to murder after a July stabbing in Michigan:

Elias Abuelazam was questioned by police twice on the same day last month in Michigan, msnbc.com has learned, marking the second and third times police are known to have investigated him since the string of 18 stabbings in three states — five of them fatal — began in late May.

In neither of the cases were police able to make the connection.

The Associated Press previously reported that Abuelazam was arrested last week during a traffic stop and later released in Northern Virginia.

Court records on file in 67th District Court in Genessee County, Mich., show that Abuelazam was also charged on the afternoon of July 29 with providing alcohol to a minor, which carries a $40 fine. Later that evening, he was stopped for a $125 traffic violation. Both fines were due next week.

In the traffic citation, Abuelazam gave his address as a unit in the Fountain Lakes Apartments in Bradenton, Fla., where 1- and 2-bedroom units are listed as renting for $829 to $949 a month. It's the same address listed on his arrest warrant in the stabbing two days earlier of Antwoine Marshall, 26, of Flint, the only attack in which Abuelazam is currently charged.