Airlines warned about potential toothpaste bombs at Olympics

The chairman of the House committee that oversees transportation security warned U.S. airlines this week about the potential bombs being placed in toothpaste tubes and other cosmetic products ahead of the winter Olympics that are about to begin in Sochi, Russia.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) said in an interview with CNN that he had been briefed about the possible terror threat by the Department of Homeland Security.

{mosads}“I’ve been briefed on this actually today, but the terror threat has been around for several days,” McCaul said. “I find it to be very specific and incredible.

“At 2:00 today, the Department of Homeland Security issued a bulletin to airlines, particularly flights going out of Europe into Russia, warning about this potential threat where explosives can be put in toothpaste containers and cosmetics on board either to detonate on the airline itself or to possibly smuggle into the Olympic village.”

McCaul said he was confident that that Homeland Security Department and Transportation Security Administration officials would be able to deal with the possible Olympic threat.

“This is a serious threat,” he said. “I know that Homeland Security officials are taking a lot of precautions in terms of tightening up screening at the airports to ensure that these explosives, if they’re on airplanes, they’ll be able to stop them.”