0 so much. that is one theory. o course another theory from a former fbi agent we just spoke with is that the explosives would be smuggled into russia, into sochi to wreak halvoc ther. there is much of the story we don't know. wolf blitzer continues in "the situation room." mr. blitzer, take it away. jake, thanks very much. a possible terror threat involving explosives hidden in tooth tpaste tubes. there are new details coming in. mitt romney is in "the situation room" this hour. after running the salt lake winter olympic game, is he repo worried about the safety of americans in sochi? and does he really mean "no, no, no" when he says he won't run again in 2016? i'll go one-on-one with him live this hour. and is this what it like when hell freezes over? across the country, more than 120 million people battling ice, snow, and bitter cold. billions right now without power. thousands of flights already have been grounded. we have full team coverage. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." >> possible terror threats only hours before the start of the winter olympic games in sochi. the united states is arriving airlines with direct flights to russia to be aware of toothpaste or cosmetic tubes that could be concealing explosive materials. nick paton walsh is standing by in sochi. let's get the latest from our justice correspondent evan perez on the story in washington. evan, what are you learning? >> wolf, this is a very big alert that just went out to airlines that are flying in to russia. this is not something that they're concerned about being directed here in the u.s., but as you mentioned the olympics getting under way on friday, they're very concerned about airliners that are flying into russia and the concern is about the possibility of explosives being hidden inside toothpaste tubes and cosmetic tubes and about whether or not that could be used to detonate a bomb on board airliners. now, this is obviously something that has been a concern with law enforcement and with airline security experts for some time. as you know, every time we travel, we now have to put our liquids into small containers before we put them on board. but this is a very extraordinary thing to be issuing this very big alert right ahead of the olympics. now, dhs sent us a statement that they wanted us to be aware of. they said out of an abundance of caution, dhs regularly shares relevant information with domestic and international partners, including those associated with international events such as the sochi olympics. our security apparatus includes a number of measures, both seen and unseen, and dhs will continue to adjust security measures to fit an ever-evolving threat environment. >> evan, stand by. i want to go to sochi. nick paton walsh is on the ground for us. i assume they're very familiar with these threats, russian security forces having received this information from the united states. set the scene for us. what's going on? >> reporter: it's quite possible the information came to the united states from the russians. i mean, they put in advance here a clear ban on all liquids in hand luggage inside planes. you can't even take the 100 mill liters, which obviously plague many frequent fliers at the moment. the russians have a long history with this. back in 2004, before the school hostage crisis that killed 300 people, two planes were blown out of the sky ten days before that, almost simultaneously by two female suicide bombers. nobody quite knew how those blasts occurred, but a lot of speculation at the time was that explosives were brought on perhaps in a large tub of face cream. now, that was before those 100 milliliter restrictions were brought in. that was more linked to a threat emanating out of london. but certainly after both blasts the russians brought in those full-body scanners that many now complain about as an invasion of privacy in other parts of the world, but they're appearing at russian airports very quickly after that. there's a decade of look agent this here. i know some suggestions are that perhaps toothpaste tubes be used to transport the explosives into this part of the world in sochi. i find that highly unlikely given how frequently it is to find explosives in this particular part of the world in southern russia, much more likely. if they're worried about that, they're worried about something occurring on the plane itself, wolf. >> walk us through what it was like. you flew into sochi from moscow. what was it like? >> reporter: much like any other flight, of course you have restrictions, that i have give you advice, but one clear change, no liquids at all, not even duty free, a blanket ban. in one separate instance a colleague of ours flying down recently did appear to get some liquids on the plane so it's not entirely clear how hermetically tight that ban necessarily is. but you're supposed to put all your liquids in the hand luggage. that clearly is because i think perhaps the russians are aware of this threat or deeply concerned of the experiences they had ten years ago being repe repeated. perhaps to repeat the words we heard from the department of homeland security's statement, this is out on abundance of caution. maybe moscow has their own version of that. >> stand by, nick. barbara starr is getting some information over at the pentagon as well. barbara, a lot of rus very familiar with other efforts to try to blow up a plane including the so-called underwear bomber. what are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, that's right. what the u.s. government will be doing now clearly is looking at known bomb makers, where are they, where have they been, what training and capability might they have spread to these elements in southern russia. it is al qaeda and yemen, there are bomb makers there that have considerable expertise in this very issue of putting hard-to-detect explosives into devices. we saw in 2009 with the attempt of so-called underwear bomber to bring down a u.s. plane on christmas over the united states. we saw wit that the same bomb-making circles put explosives inside printer cart riblgs. there -- cartridges. there's a lot of information available on website, chat rooms. this is the type of bomb making information that has truly spread across these jihadists and fundamentalist circles. no question about it. and what's so interesting, wolf, it was just yesterday, the head of u.s. counterterrorism, matthew olson, testifying before the house intelligence committee, said that the u.s. was investigating a number of specific threats of varying credibility, he said, and working to disrupt them. there is a lot of cooperation at this point in information between the russians and the u.s. the u.s. view so far has been that they believe the venues, the olympic venues, are so heavily guarded by the russians right now, they will be safe. it's concern about outside of the venues. we've talked about it, the so-called soft targets -- restaurants, shops, railroads, transportation. outside of sochi and the venues, these are the vulnerable areas. this warning goes to that point. >> the u.s. military has deployed equipment, hardware, troops in the area in case of an emergency. >> reporter: well, they have, wolf. there are two navy warships in the black sea now, but we are being cautious. that that is really a just-in-case kind of measure. the military is very strongly making the point it will be the state department that would be working with the russians directly if there is an attack, if there is a crisis. but the u.s. military also is going to put a number of transport aircraft on stand by n germany hopefully not to be used but to be used to evacuate a large number of americans out of russia if it came to that, wolf. >> i want to go back to sochi. nick payson walsh is our man on the scene. are folks there, athletes, tourists, speck tay ttators, to are they nervous about a potential terror attack? >> reporter: at the airport this afternoon we saw the us a rhee trooeian ice hockey team, big guy, not scared of much, but their two female many members received that letter yesterday threatening them of kidnap. they were relaxed but one said they were going to take a decision as a group if they were going to leave the olympic village during the time they're around. i think that's the point the decision comes for so many people visiting here. it's pretty clear inside that ring there won't be many efforts. but when you move out into the town where the venue is, perhaps to the town of sochi itself, that's where the dragnet softens and the problems arise. to talk about also the kind of device people might be concerned about here. i mean, it's sophistication of the bomb makers in this part of the world has increased significantly. we're seeing videos of insurgents about eight years ago making huge bombs out of fertilizer in paint tubs. that has since changed and the more recent videos involve quite small, sophisticated suicide belts which security videos show them destroying when they're found. there is sophistication here certainly. and one of the more recent bomb makers named by the security services is an ethic russian thought to have some sort of military training caple of building quite sophisticated devices. i'm sure there's a lot of concern within russian security circles about what they could be facing. that's perhaps where this toothpaste tube and cosmetic warning stems from. a long history of devices on aircraft like that and perhaps the russians having their own abundance of caution here. if that turns out to be they were the source of this american warning. >> and in recent months i've been told repeatedly some of these terrorist bomb makers are becoming increasingly sophisticated, learning new techniques all the time. nick, don't go too far away. we'll stay atop the breaking news out of russia. mitt romney knows a lot about olympic games. he ran the winter olympic games in salt lake city. what does he think about the latest threat to sochi? 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