Berlin.- Suspects in the foiled plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna earlier this month were seeking to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA uncovered intelligence that disrupted their planning and led to arrests, the U.S. agency’s deputy director said.
The CIA notified Austrian authorities about the plot, which allegedly included ties to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests eventually led to the cancellation of three sold-out shows on the Eras tour, heartbreaking fans who had traveled around the world to see Swift in concert.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen addressed the failed plot during the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland this week.
“They were plotting to kill large numbers, tens of thousands of people, at this concert, including, I’m sure, many Americans, and they were quite far along in this,” Cohen said Wednesday. “The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them with information about what this ISIS-connected group was planning to do.”
Austrian authorities said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group. He allegedly planned to attack outside the stadium with knives or homemade explosives, where more than 30,000 fans were expected to gather. Another 65,000 fans were likely to be inside the venue. Investigators discovered chemical substances and technical devices during a search of the suspect’s home.
Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner has previously said help from other intelligence agencies was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, cannot legally monitor text messages.
The 19-year-old’s lawyer said the allegations were being “overplayed to the max” and argued that Austrian authorities were “over-representing this” to gain new surveillance powers.
Swift broke her silence on the cancellations last week after her London concert series concluded.
“Having our shows in Vienna cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement posted 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 to come to those shows.”
He thanked the authorities – “thanks to them, we were mourning for the concerts and not for the lives,” he wrote – and said he waited to speak until the European leg of his Eras tour was over in order to prioritize security.
“Let me be very clear: I will not speak about something publicly if I feel that doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.
Swift’s publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.
The concert’s promoter, Barracuda Music, said it had cancelled the three-night Vienna tour, which was to have started on August 8, because the arrests in connection with the plot occurred so close to the performances.
The main suspect and a 17-year-old boy were arrested on August 6, the day before the cancellations were announced. A third suspect, aged 18, was arrested on August 8. Their names have not been revealed in accordance with Austrian privacy rules.
The London shows, the tour’s next stop after Vienna, came shortly after a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class that left three girls dead in the U.K. In a statement released after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “completely in shock” and “at a loss for how to express my condolences to these families.” Media outlets reported that Swift met with some of the survivors backstage in London.
The Vienna plot also drew comparisons to the 2017 attack by a suicide bomber at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, that killed 22 people. A bomb was detonated at the end of Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving the arena, making it the deadliest extremist attack in the U.K. in recent years.
Cohen on Wednesday praised the CIA’s work in preventing planned violence, saying other counterterrorism “successes” that thwart plots often go unnoticed.
“I can tell you that within my agency, and I’m sure others, there were people who thought it was a really good day for Langley,” he said, referring to CIA headquarters. “And not just the Swifties on my staff.”
Swift’s tour, which has broken ticket sales records, is on hiatus until the fall.
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