0 all this he's intimidating? i bet one wellsy grad, hillary clinton, wouldn't have been intimidated at all. thanks for watching. anderson starts now. breaking news tonight. another warning on top of so many others in the run up to the winter olympics. this one on the eve of opening ceremonies. the federal government temporarily banning all liquids, gels, aerosols and powders in carry on luggage between flights when the u.s. and russia in the wake of concerns terrorists might set off explosives concealed in tubes of toothpaste. in case you're wondering what kind of damage that could do take a look. that is the destruction from just a couple of ounces of an explosive called rdx. that test was commissioned. explosive engineers sidney alfred filled a toothpaste tube with the rdx, topped it off with enough toothpaste to look totally innocent. >> i wouldn't like to be in an airplane with that explosive, not even a big one. it smells and tastes like toothpaste. i have presented this in such a way that somebody giving it a casual inspection will probably pass it. >> the question of course is how good are the inspectors. how tight is security at u.s. amounts especially on russian soil. ivan watson is in sochi for us tonight. barbara starr at the pentagon. barbara the tsa issuing this ban today. obviously the u.s. taking this latest threat seriously. >> reporter: absolutely, anderson. good evening, the department of homeland security issuing this ban as they would say out of an abundance of caution. but the reality is now the u.s. and the russians are tracking several threats against the sochi games. and the challenge for intelligence services in both countries is to determine which of these threats are specific, which are credible, who would have the capability to really assemble some of these devices and carry off an attack. and they are far from understanding that at this point. so still a lot of intelligence gathering going on, a lot of focus on this toothpaste threat. but the focus is spreading to other threats as well. >> and ivan, there have been reports that despite temporary russian ban on liquids in carry on luggage people have actually been getting onto flights with those restricted items in their carry luggage. do officials have an explanation for that? >> reporter: well, i interviewed the ceo of sochi airport. he said yeah, you're not supposed to bring any kind of makeup, cosmetics, whatever, in your carry on luggage. but then our own cnn sports correspondent rachel nichols arrived today after flying new york, moscow, moscow to sochi, with not one but two tubes of toothpaste in her carry on bag as well as cosmetics and other cosmetics as well. she said the russians in moscow airport for this internal flight did not take that away from her. so there seems to be some kind of a problem between -- maybe something's lost in translation. i really don't know. >> barbara, in terms of contingent plans in the event of some kind of attack, what does the us response look like? i know there's a ship off shore. >> reporter: there are a couple of navy ships off shore. what you have in sochi as i'm sure ivan as other members of our team would tell you, there is a u.s. operations center. that's really the hub of the u.s. response at the moment, personnel from law enforcement, intelligence, diplomatic security, all there, all keeping an eye on everything assembling information if there were to be an attack -- we hope there won't be -- they would be the first responders. they would have the latest information, work with the u.s. embassy in moscow, develop the plans for assistance to americans on the ground. there is now sort of if you wil government to government links across the board. diplomatic, law enforcement, security, intelligence and military. the question remains, though, if something were to happen how much cooperation will there really be with the russians. >> and ivan, it's obviously not as important as the potential security threat. but we've been reporting on this program a lot last night, we talked to you about it, about complaints by visitors about accommodations, about whether or not sochi is actually ready for the olympics. i know one official today had some interesting things to say about western visitors complaining about the conditions in the hotels. what happened? >> yes. strange quote from the "wall street journal" quoting that deputy prime minister saying "we have surveillance video of some of these people complaining about the bad conditions, turning on the water in their bathroom, firing the nozzle at the wall and leaving the water running all day" basically suggesting this was sabotae or something by some of the critics. but that raised another question, if this quote is in fact true, are the russians monitoring visitors in their bathrooms? and that's a big question. we can assume that the russians are very closely monitoring all the telecommunications, a lot of the data that is moving through this place. and i have to add on top of that. so this may become another issue for the russians now as people try to follow up that potential quote. but we also have to stress, anderson, the massive deployment of russian security forces on the ground. tens of thousands of them. this alleged ring of steel with fortified olympic venues around here. and also the reactions of some of the athletes i've talked to about the security question. i've met dozens of members of team usa coming off the plane. some of them said yeah we were worried about some of the security issues. now we're here, we feel good, we feel safe, and we're going to compete to the best of our abilities. i heard that again and again today at sochi airport from members of team usa. anderson. >> ivan watson on the ground, thank you barbara starr as well. republican congressman peter king sits on the house homeland security committee and intelligence committee. >> congressman, this latest threat explosives in toothpaste tubes. how credible do you think it snits. >> i thi >>. >> it was a legitimate source that gave the information. that doesn't mean it's going to happen, it's definite. but it's serious enough we have to consider it to be accurate. we have to assume that it's true and play it back from there. so it's something being taken very seriously by our country, by the russians, by a number of other countries who are also involved in this. >> you're on the house intelligence committee. there was a hearing before the committee on tuesday. the head of the national counterterrorism center said that there are quote a number of specific threats of varying degrees of credibility. saying a number specific threats, it sounds like maybe something more than toothpaste in cosmetic tubes. is that accurate? >> i really can't go into that. and i think just the fact we're saying toothpaste and cosmetics tubes, that's also pretty specific. that's the first time if this is true that this type of weaponry has been used. this is something we have not seen before. and it was given with a degree of specificity. so to that extent, that is what i believe director olsen was saying. because he also briefed us the night before in a classified session. there's a number of other threats we are looking at. and as i mentioned before, it's not always easy to do it this time because we're not getting full cooperation from the russians. >> the associated press is reporting that six of their employees either arriving on flights into or departing on flights out of moscow got through security with hand lotion, water bottles or even toothpaste tubes in their carry on luggage. how much does that concern you? >> i am generally concerned about the russians' approach to this. but i am not that confident. again, i have no idea if this report is true or not. but i'm not surprised to hear it, that the russians have a heavy-handed approach to security but often can let the smaller things get by. >> last week you and i talked, you said you wouldn't go to the games or have your family go to the games. that still hold true? >> it does. i don't want to be spreading panic. i mean, odds are still on there's not going to be an attack. but the odds are higher that there will be an attack in this game than there have been for any of the other previous games in or memory. so that's really the point that i'm making, that there's far more chance of an attack here than there was in london or china or greece. and you add to that the location and the fact that again i emphasize we're not getting full cooperation from the russians, to me it's just not worth the rest okay go. >> has the cooperation gotten any better since we talked last week or is it still the same? >> my understanding it's gotten slightly better. but still it's not at the level it was with the chinese or brits or greeks. >> peter king, congressman, appreciate it. thank you. >> anderson, thank you. staying in the region, somebody once said that diplomacy is the art of saying nice doggy until you can find a big stick. point being, diplomatic nice tis can cover plenty of less than diplomatic sentiments as long as those sentiments stay private. tonight a leaked audio recording appears to show the top american diplomat to europe, a woman named victoria knewland, expressing her frustration with the your wean union, e.u. in solving the crisis in ukraine. one resembles nuland's. the audio starts with nuland. listen. >> he's now gotten both serry and ban ki-moon to agree serry could come in tuesday that. would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it. and [ mute ] the e.u. >> the call cannot be independently verified. it's unclear when it was recorded. it's pretty clear who thinks the u.s. leaked it. for that we're joined by national correspondent jim sciutto. the white house and state department who are they pointing the finger at? >> reporter: directly at russia. the state department called it a new low in russian craft. it was tweeted out by the aide to the deputy minister of russia. the account on youtube was called madon puppets, the name of the square where protesters in kiev are gathering. puppets is a russian charge that they are puppets of the west, puppets of america. this whole thing is an american instigated aware. i think frankly i don't know if the russians would push back too hard on them being behind this. so i think we kind of know where this is coming from. >> but why would the russians release it? what's in it for them? just embarrass the united states? >> reporter: i think to embarrass the united states and also fuel this idea that the protesters are not independent, that they're being fueled and prodded and instigated by the americans. that fits that narrative for them to have that and kind of undermines the public support and the legitimacy of them or at least from the russian point of view would undermine their legitimacy. >> nuland's apologized to her e.u. counterparts for what they said. the state department at least publicly don't seem overly concerned about that. >> reporter: i think the relationship's going to live another day. it doesn't show a substantive disagreement with the europeans on this. essentially they're on the same side. they prefer a ukraine that is more integrated into europe as opposed to one that is under the iron fist of russia. but it's a difficult thing to explain to friends. it kind of remind me of the wiki leaks scandal with a lot of cables going out there. really the biggest headlines from those cables were the personal snipe snipes at the french president from the american ambassador, things like that. so i don't think it's a substantive thing. but it does -- these guys are friends. they got to see each other. it's not a nice thing to say about friends. >> jim sciutto, appreciate it. let us know what you think. follow me on twitt twitter @andersoncooper. just ahead, new developments in the philip seymour hoffman death investigation. two suspects with possible connections to the drugs in his apartment were back in court today. we'll talk about that. also a former heroin addict -- a current heroin addict still caught up in the drug's powerful grip takes us inside his agony. >> are you afraid it's going to kill you? >> yeah. it's like a weird feeling of admitting the fact that why haven't i died. >> plus lawyers for the drunk driving texas teen who killed four people and avoided prison now say the media made too big a deal out of their affluenza defense. we're keeping them honest. ♪ ♪