Winter GamesDHS alerts Russia-bound airlines of toothpaste tube bombs risk

The U.S. intelligence and counterterrorism agencies have advising airlines flying to Russia to be aware of the possibility that explosive materials could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic tubes.

Representative Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said Wednesday that DHS issued a bulletin to airlines flying into Russia alerting them to the potential threat. McCaul said the bulletin indicated that officials believed the explosives might be used during flights or smuggled into the city of Sochi, where competition at the Winter Olympics begins later today. The opening ceremony will be held Friday.

A U.S. law enforcement official told CNN that what prompted the DHS bulletin was specific to the imminent start of the games.

The source went on to say that Russian and Olympic authorities have increasing confidence about the safety of Sochi and the Olympic venues. Still, U.S. intelligence has been picking up increasing chatter about targets outside the Sochi area, including regional transportation links.

CNN reports that the new concern about explosive toothpaste tubes notwithstanding, the biggest worry is still Islamist groups based in southern Russia’s Caucasus region. U.S. officials, however, have also expressed concern regarding al Qaeda-linked groups from elsewhere exploiting the attention being focused on Russian militant groups.

CNN notes that the concern about toothpaste tubes is mostly focused on flights from Europe and neighboring Asian countries because the United States has less intelligence-sharing with those nations.

A different law enforcement source told CNN there was no known threat to the United States, but the notice to U.S. and international air carriers is based on new intelligence information.

“It’s real. It’s real and we got very good information,” a government source, who did not want to speak for full attribution, told CNN. “It’s based on a credible source. We’re taking it seriously. So are other countries….”

DHS said in a statement that “out of an abundance of caution” it routinely shares “relevant information” with domestic and international entities, “including those associated with international events” like the Sochi Olympics.

Russian officials said Russia had already banned liquids in airline carry-on luggage ahead of the games, and before the latest warning.

Representative Peter King R-New York), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee’s subcommittee on terrorism and Intelligence, told CNN that Americans, the airlines and those at the Olympics should take the threat “very seriously.”

King said he believes the athletes and American spectators are “reasonably safe,” but noted that he would not go himself.

“Just as a spectator, I don’t think it’s worth the risk. I mean, odds are nothing is going to happen, but the odds are higher than for any other Olympics, I believe, that something could happen,” he said.

King said he has some confidence in how the Russians are handling security, but “really not enough because they are not sharing enough intelligence” about what’s happening inside the country.

“We are getting some information about what’s happening outside of Russia, some external threats, that type thing, or potential threats. I don’t want to overstate that,” he said.

He noted a “ring of steel right around the Olympics itself” but said “there’s a real cause for concern” about getting to Sochi and surrounding areas.

Secretary of State John Kerry, in an interview with CNN before the toothpaste alert broke, said that “anybody who wants to go to the Olympics, which are just a great event, should go. And we’re not telling people not to go.”

Kerry added that people should be alert and take precautions, advice he says has been requisite since the 9/11 attacks.

“We’ve got a new consciousness about this,” he said.

Terrorism experts say that airlines continue to be a target of terrorists, and that since 2001 the focus has shifted from hijackings to bombs, especially those that might be hidden in luggage. Experts are also aware of creative packaging or other novel ways to conceal explosives.