BERLIN (AP) — A failed plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month had targeted “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA uncovered intelligence that thwarted the plot and led to their arrests, the agency's deputy director said.
The CIA tipped off Austrian authorities to the plot, which was allegedly linked to the Islamic State. The tip and subsequent arrests led to the cancellation of three sold-out shows on her Eras Tour, sending shockwaves through fans who had traveled around the world to see Swift in concert.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke about the failed plan at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland this week.
“They were planning to kill a huge number of people at this concert – tens of thousands of people, including many Americans. The planning was well advanced,” Cohen said Wednesday. “The Austrian authorities were able to make the arrests because our own authorities and intelligence partners provided them with information about what this ISIS-linked group was planning.”
Austrian authorities said the main attacker, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by Islamic State. He is believed to have planned the attack with knives and homemade explosives outside the stadium, where more than 30,000 fans were expected to gather. Another 65,000 are believed to have been inside. Investigators found chemicals and mechanical devices in a search of the suspect's home.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Kerner previously said Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign investigators, cannot legally monitor text messages and therefore need the help of other intelligence agencies.
The 19-year-old's lawyer said the allegations were “wildly exaggerated” and argued that Austrian authorities were “exaggerating and presenting them” in order to gain new surveillance powers.
Narrowly averted: Taylor Swift terror plotter photo released, confesses to police during interrogation https://t.co/8giunhYILh
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 9, 2024
Swift broke her silence about the cancelled shows after her London show ended last week.
“I was shocked when my Vienna show was cancelled,” she said in a statement on Instagram. “Hearing the reason for the cancellation left me with a new sense of fear and immense guilt as so many people had planned to come to the show.”
She thanked authorities, writing that “thanks to them we can mourn the concert and not our lives,” and said she was refraining from speaking out until the end of the European legs of her Eras Tour in order to prioritize safety.
“I want to be clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think it could incite people to seek harm against the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.
Concert organizers Barracuda Music announced that they had cancelled three consecutive nights in Vienna, scheduled to begin on August 8, because the conspiracy-related arrests were too close to the showtimes.
The main suspect and a 17-year-old boy were detained on Aug. 6, the day before the cancellation was announced. A third suspect, aged 18, was arrested on Aug. 8. Their names have not been released in accordance with Austrian privacy regulations.
The London show, the next stop after Vienna, comes just days after a stabbing incident at a Swift-themed dance studio in the UK left three girls dead. In a statement released after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “just completely shocked” and “has no idea how to express my condolences to the families.” News outlets reported that Swift met with some of the survivors backstage in London.
The Vienna plot has also drawn comparisons to the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande's concert, as thousands of young fans were leaving the venue, making it the deadliest extremist attack in the UK in recent years.
Cohen on Wednesday praised the CIA's work to thwart planned violence, saying other counterterrorism “successes” in thwarting plots often go unnoticed.
“I'm sure there were people in my department and in other departments who thought it was a really good day at Langley,” he said, referring to CIA Headquarters. “And not just my guy, Swifty.”
The record-breaking tour is on hiatus until the fall.
ISIS terror plot at Taylor Swift concert in Austria thwarted, two arrested https://t.co/GOstSwM7B1
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) August 8, 2024
