- CIA thwarts plot to attack Taylor Swift's Vienna concert, saving hundreds
- Suspects, inspired by Islamic State, planned to kill "huge number" of people
- Taylor Swift thanks authorities for cancelling shows, preventing loss of life
The CIA has disclosed that the suspects involved in the thwarted plot against a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna aimed to kill “a huge number” of attendees at the event. The intelligence shared by the agency enabled Austrian authorities to disrupt the scheme, thereby saving “hundreds of lives,” according to CIA Deputy Director David Cohen.
During an annual intelligence summit held outside Washington, DC, Mr. Cohen described the planned attack as having been “advanced,” noting that the concert attracted “tens of thousands of people,” including many Americans.
Three male teenagers, allegedly inspired by the Islamic State group, were apprehended in connection with the plot. Mr. Cohen emphasized that the day of the arrests was a “good day for Langley,” referring to the CIA headquarters, and not just for “Swifties in the office.”
“The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do,” Mr. Cohen explained. He did not disclose how the CIA acquired details of the plot.
Approximately 200,000 people were expected to attend one of Taylor Swift’s three Vienna concerts, part of her multi-continent Eras tour. However, on August 7, the day before the first concert, organizers announced the shows would be canceled following a warning from government officials about a “planned terrorist attack.”
Austrian authorities arrested two suspects on the day of the warning and took the third into custody two days later. The primary suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and had selected the Eras tour as a target with the intention to “kill as many people as possible.”
In her first public comment on the incident, Swift expressed her distress over the cancellation on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned on coming to those shows,” she wrote. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
Swift, who recently set a record for the most concerts by a solo artist at Wembley, is scheduled to continue her tour with a performance in Miami, Florida, on October 18.
