Now. The official says the company filed a report sunday about its missing staff. The u. S. State department is working with iraqi officials to locate the missing americans. Our Nick Paton Walsh is on the phone from beirut. Im joined by jim sciutto. Let me go to you first closer to the region there. What more can you tell us about the circumstances of these American Contractors going missing . As you say, we know very little at this stage. We know that the company theyre working for filed a report on sunday about their staff going missing two days ago. Thats according to a senior Iraqi Security official in baghdad. Initial reports suggest that they may hold what are said to be contractors. Thats information that could mean a variety of tasks anything from security to assisting communications could be the kind of thing that are involved. Now, they were, it seems, gone missing and there were supports suggesting this may have been a kidnap in a southern neighborhood of baghdad. The state
Investigation. Sara murray has details on that. Months after president Donald Trumps reported efforts to fire special counsel Robert Mueller, he is still fuming about the russia investigation. But now hes directing his ire at Deputy Attorney general rod rosenstein. Rosenstein oversees mueller and the investigation. President trump has been airing his frustration about rosenstein. They say that seems like bluster. But it does give you a window into the fact that one year into trumps presidency, he is still extremely preoccupied by this investigation and looking for any way to bring a conclusion to it swiftly. Now, we did get a comment from ty cobb, the white house special counsel and in his comment he said this. We do not find it to be a questions dense that there is an john lawsuit of onslaught of false stories circulating in what appears to be speculation about already reported buysace and corruption. And today, there are calls for republicans to return cash given by major donor and c
for the extreme far reaches of the insurgency with isis who are gaining ground, as well. we re into a vital moment here for the trump presidency. this is is the only war that president trump has ill listed a policy on. he said he wants to win. bear in mind, taxpayers at home, you ll know less and less information about how the war is going because key things like how many african soldiers and police are dying, that is now classified. so we re into a key moment for donald trump s personal policy. more americans on the front line exposed than ever before, but likely less information coming on you from home and today another sign that what should have been the most secure area, frankly, and the whole country is deeply vulnerable to this unbelievably satisfy aemg tactic. so sad. nick payson walsh, thank you so much. appreciate it. so much more straight ahead in the news room. but first, if you love the great outdoors but don t like camping, cnn money has your back.
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.
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 si