A new threat just issued by the department of Homeland Security here in washington warning airlines to pay additional scrutiny for the possibility of terrorists attempting to hide explosives hidden in shoes. The warning flights from overseas coming to the United States. Jim sciutto is standing by as well as our brian todd and our National Security analyst peter bergen. Lets begin with jim sciutto. What is the precise information, jim . We always take new warnings seriously, but lets talk act what it is and what it isnt. Its based on new intelligence that terrorists are working on new shoe bomb designs. This is a trette threat that u. S. Intelligence has been watching closely ever since richard reid, the attempted shoe bomber. What we will not see is any new measures as folks are getting onto these flights. Shoes are already required to be taken off, that kind of thing. They wont institute any new measures as a result of this, but they are asking airlines to give additional scrutiny and theyre giving this out in terms of an abundance of caution. Heres what its not, and ive been told by a u. S. Official that the threat is not specific or credible enough to require a specific response. Generally in a situation like this if they had specific and credible information you would see something major, more guards at the gates. You know, we would be subjected to more procedures as a result of this because they had something specific in mind. What they have is new intelligence that terrorists are trying to work on a new design. What they do not have is a specific threat of a particular airline, a particular timing or group that is trying to carry out an attack. So its serious but put it in the context that pass jers out there, its difficult for passengers when this warning comes their way. Should i be changing my travel plans . Are there certain countries i shouldnt be visiting . Thats not what the dhs or intelligence officials are telling us. Would this mostly be the suspicion, the fear, even though its a general concern, flights coming into the United States from overseas . Thats what theyre focused on. This is the a additional scrutiny they are warning airlines about. No additional measures but they are letting them know that this is something that they should be aware of. Remember, it was only a couple weeks ago in the advance of the sochi olympics where we had another warning come through, you and i talked about this a lot, toothpaste tubes as a possible means of getting explosives onto an airplane, another case where the threat was specific to the games but not specific or credible enough they were canceling flights. But again out of the abundance of caution. You know, this is something that, you know, in context, this is a kind of method of attacking planes that u. S. Intelligence agencies have been concerned about for some time. How do they get explosives on board in light of all the security we go through . And shoes is an area of particular concern. Anytime they get new information in that category theyll put it out there because they dont want anything to happen. Remember, were still living with new rules that have ariz. From previous threats. You remember the liquid bomb plot seven or eight years ago. But still today we have limits on how many liquids we can bring on planes. Remember the underwear bomber. As a result of that we get patdowns we didnt get before. This is the new world we live in post 9 11. Theyll act in an abundance of caution. Right now if youre traveling in the United States, unless you have a tsa prescreen, you still have to take off your shoes, put them in the bin, and they are xrayed. Absolutely. That will continue. But they wont add another line of defense in response. They just want to get the information out there so everybody is aware. Jim sciutto, thanks very much. Were watching the breaking news and getting more information on whats going on and a little historic perspective as well. This is a story that potentially could be significant although this is a general concern right now, not a specific warning. Brian todd is joining us with a little more of whats going on. What else are you learning . Perspective on how much of an explosive material you need to bring down an airliner and the answer is not much. Weve had various explosives tested in small containers, other chambers that people carry onto planes and wear on planes. Experts have a consensus if someone were to get explosives into shoes or other small containers it would not take much sfloif bring a plane down. A couple weeks ago you might recall Homeland Security officials alerted airlines to the threat of explosives being placed in toothpaste containers. Cindy alford, an expert in britain, he detonated rdx, a white kristofferscrystalline po toothpaste tube. He packed toothpaste only in about a third of that container, explosives in the rest of it. A small container of toothpaste and thats what it did. Alford said that would have been enough to bring town a plane. Weve also seen what the 2009 underwear bomb would have looked like if it had gone off. Another similar explosion to the one you just saw. Farouk concealed it in his pants and got it through security. Thats a Law Enforcement demo of what it would have looked like. Also that British Security expert, sidney alford, had previously shown cnn what one of those printer bombs hitten in printer cartridges on cargo planes could have done if they had gone off in that 2010 plot. Theres a picture of the printer cartridge bomb there. That plot was disrupted as we look at what that could have done. In those cases its believed the explosive petn was used but terrorists are learning new ways to construct shoe bombs, takes very little explosive material and a very little bit with bring down a plane. Brian todd, thanks very much. So watching the breaking news and want to get some perspective on whats going on. Terrorists are still out there, aiming their efforts at the United States. Peter bergen is here in the situation room. Give us some perspective right now. Theyre not just al qaeda but Al Qaedaaffiliated groups, nonal qaeda groups. A lot of them would like to get a shoe bomber on a plane and blow up a plane. The one group thats we saw in brians piece who put these printer cartridge bombs on flights bound for the United States, that was al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. The guy who built those bombs is a guy, al asiri, also built the underwear bomb of northwest flight over detroit and luckily failed to detonate properly in 2009. This guy is still alive. Al qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has taken a lot of hits from drone strikes and Yemeni Government activity, but he is still out there. While the dhs threat is nonspecific, this is a guy who has had, you know, a lot of track record in making these sophisticated hard to defect bombs. Hes considered a master bomb maker. Hes got new technology presumably at his fingertips, right . Yeah. And the other issue is to what extent has he trained other people. You know, even if he was eliminated in some way, its quite possible hes teaching other people within his organization how to build these effective weapons. Let me bring in our National Security contributor, former Homeland Security security adviser to president bush, joining us on the phone. Fran thompson, what do you make of the latest warning from the department of Homeland Security, be on the lookout potentially for shoe bombers trying to get to planes overseas coming to the United States . Its always a difficult decision to decide if the information youre getting is not specific but you believe its credible, when do you put it out. You of course dont want to unnecessarily worry the traveling public around the world, but, you know, it does this is part of an narratve so, we heard the toothpaste tube threat, brian has gone through the various incarnations, computer cartridge, the underwear bomber. Al asiri and al qaeda have invested a lot in developing new meth thotds to get around our screening. So when youve got information thats credible, even when its not specific, especially at the time where you know that theres a threat to the olympics, you want to be you want to alert the airlines so they can i think youll probably see more swipes if youre boarding a plane headed for the u. S. , more of these bomb detections, trace element tes that you see at an airport from people boarding with their carryon luggage, flights bound for the u. S. From overseas. Until they get more information or are able to either dismiss or confirm the threat. But for the department of Homeland Security, to go ahead and issue a warning like this, they have to have something to justify it. People are going to be nervous and cancel trips. People will be agitated just by this warning. What goes into a decision to make a public warning like this . The department of Homeland Security will sort of pull together the interagency community, the u. S. Law enforcement and intelligence community, look at the source of the information, determine whether or not its credible. We often hear the language theres chatter. It depends whos talking. They wont tell us that, but when they evaluate this information theyll look at how did they collect that information, are the people if its intercepts, are those people in a position to know, and thats all going into determining whether or not the information is sufficiently credible to warrant a u. S. Public warning. Here they say its not specific, but obviously they made a determination that the information is sufficiently credible to require a public warning. Fran thompson, thanks very much. Peter bergen, thanks to you as well. Fran, by the way, is not only cnns National Security analyst, shes a member of both the department of Homeland Security and cia external advisory boards. Up next, a violent prodemocracy struggle in his own backyard. Why that may be Vladimir Putins worst nightmare. And republican candidates beginning to distance themselves from the vicious, racebaiting rans of the Rocker Ted Nugent. No matter how busy your morning you can always do Something Better for yourself. And better is so easy with benefiber. Fiber thats tastefree, gritfree and dissolves completely. So you can feel free to add it to anything. And feel better about doing it. Better it with benefiber. As he gets dressed. You know the shirt hell choose. The wine hell order. You know him. 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The stakes are high as president obama and european leaders issue serious warnings. To our Senior International correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in kiev, the capital of ukraine. Theres talk of negotiations. Could there be room for an actual truce . Reporter wolf, let me tell you what we know about this supposed truce. A statement from the president , Viktor Yanukovych, saying hes met with senior parliamentarians and three opposition leaders that include a truce and then negotiations about stability and peace. Here whats going on behind me, though, they probably heard about it down there through the large [ inaudible ] when they get regularly addressed. Weve seen protesters firing fireworks at the police in just the last ten minutes. Still thick black smoke from tire fires all around the demonstrations. No sign of any change in whats happening down there. Were hearing news of the truce, police throwing cocktails in the direction of the protesters. Whatever is happening behind closed doors its not changed things on the ground. Bear in mind one thing, wolf, this is a sharp change fromin rhetoric from Viktor Yanukovych, who a few hours ago talked about radicals and his security chief said they needed an antiterror operation against them. Hes going to be seeing three key e. U. Foreign ministers arriving in kiev tomorrow morning. Im sure he wants to appear statesman like before any meetings with them. Wolf . So those explosions were hearing, those loud explosions, youre saying those are fireworks. Is that what it is . Reporter its a mixture. The very loud bangs we think are probably some sort of stunt grenade. That may be something used by the police for the sheer size of the barrier we hear but more often we see homemade or locally purchased fireworks fired by protesters. We went down and saw one man, very simple, you take a firework in hand, light it, put it over the top of the barricade and fire it at the police. The police in riot gear, not sure how effective it is injuring them but its an act of aggression on the police. But theyre not matched evenly here. There are protesters digging up the pavement, throwing rocks at the police, trying to make barricades, whatever they can possibly find against a heavily equipped police force changing shifts in regular numbers. Tense situation remaining in the pictures, so dramatic from kiev. Eerie echoes of the cold war and the collapse of the soviet union. A closer look of whats going on with cnns tom foreman here with max fisher of the washington post. Tom, give us some perspective. First of all, wolf, up to look at where ukraine is located because this is the historic divider between russia and the rest of europe, right, snax. Historians think the country is border link sod the sense of being in between is baked into the ukraines identity. Only about 900 miles if you were to drive sochi where the olympics are going on. Talk about the makeup of the country. Its about the size of texas and 45 Million People so, its big. Why did all this launch . It really goes back to something that happened in november with the European Union. Yeah, ukraine was considering a deal for greater economic integration with the European Union. A lot of ukrainians like this because they thought it was a good deal and they liked the idea of being part of europe. But they didnt get that. They got a different deal. What happened . What happened is ukraine surprised everybody by taking a deal with russia instead for about 15 billion in bailout and cheaper natural gas. So those who opposed it, who wanted the European Union deal, then turned their attention even more so on the president. Yeah. President Viktor Yanukovych whos seen by a lot of ukrainians as corrupt, hed been ousted in protests in 2004 previously, he seems very cozy with russia, actually russia is his native language, so when he took this deal, people thought hes sold out our country to moscow. So manyin many ways what this comes down to, hes a historic divisionist. This has always been like two countries in one space, and now its coming to a head. Thats right. If you look at this purple western half, this actually mostly speaks ukrainian. Thats where kiev is, muslim protests. But eastern half, people mostly speak russian. Thats where yanukovych is from. People have a little more fondness for the old ties to russia. What youre seeing play out is an identity crisis ukraine has had. Are we a european country or facing more towards russia . And of course theres a big pull from both sides, europeans and the United States saying you should be free to do what you want and from the russian side, because bear in mind this was a region that was part of the soviet empire, produced onequarter of all the agricultural products. It is a huge trading partner to russia. Wolf, all of that is playing a role. Certainly is. Good explanation, guys. Thanks very much. For russias president , Vladimir Putin, the violence occurring next door has got to be extremely worrisome. Joining us now, Fareed Zakaria, host of Fareed Zakaria gps. And a former u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. And a Senior Editor at the new republic. Julia, let me start with you because you have a provocative headline, excellent article in the new issue of the new republic in which you say these protests in kiev right now represent putins worst nightmare. Explain what youre driving at. So the last time Viktor Yanukovych was in power or the last time he was elected to power in 2004, it also triggered mass protests. The first time that the west heard about a place called the maydan was because he was elected in a fraudulent election. Those protests that toppled him and brought in a prowestern government in kiev terrified Vladimir Putin. He really tightened the screws, killed off what was left of russian democracy, really clamped down on the free press on civil society, created this fearsome prokremlin youth group, and he sees ukraine not as a separate government but as an extension of russia. He told george w. Bush