CIA official says plan to attack Taylor Swift’s shows in Vienna was intended to kill thousands

The suspects in the foiled plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month planned to kill “tens of thousands” of fans before the CIA uncovered intelligence that disrupted the planning and led to arrests, the agency’s deputy director said.

The CIA alerted Austrian authorities to the plan, which reportedly included ties to the Islamic State group. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Eras Tour shows, devastating fans who had traveled around the world to see Swift in concert.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke about the failed plot at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit, held this week in Maryland.

“They were planning to kill a large number of people — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I’m sure many Americans — and they were quite advanced in doing so,” Cohen said Wednesday.

“The Austrians were able to make these arrests because the service and our partners within the intelligence community provided them with information about the plans of this ISIS-affiliated group.”

WATCH | Taylor Swift’s Vienna shows cancelled after foiled attack:

Taylor Swift’s Vienna concerts cancelled over alleged attack plans

Wednesday, August 7 – The Vienna leg of Taylor Swift’s successful Eras tour has been cancelled after two people were arrested over an alleged plot to carry out an attack on a public event in the Austrian capital.

Austrian officials said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian man, was inspired by the Islamic State group and had planned to attack with knives or homemade explosives outside the stadium, where more than 30,000 fans were expected to gather.

Another 65,000 fans were believed to be in the venue. Investigators said they discovered chemicals and technical devices during a raid on the suspect’s home.

Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said earlier that help from other intelligence services was needed because Austrian investigators, unlike some foreign services, are not legally allowed to listen in on text messages.

The 19-year-old’s lawyer said the allegations were “overacting” and claimed Austrian authorities were “exaggerating this” in order to gain greater powers to monitor.

Swift breaks the silence

Swift broke her silence on the cancellations last week after her London shows ended.

“Having our shows in Vienna cancelled was devastating,” she wrote in a statement on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of dread and a huge amount of guilt because so many people were planning on coming to those shows.”

She thanked authorities – “thanks to them we mourned concerts and not lives,” she wrote – and said she had waited to speak until the European leg of her Eras Tour had ended to prioritize safety.

“Let me be very clear: I will not speak publicly about anything if I think it might provoke those who want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote.

Swift’s publicist did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday.

Concert promoter Barracuda Music has announced that the three-day concert in Vienna, scheduled to begin on August 8, has been canceled because the arrests in connection with the conspiracy came too close to the show’s start time.

The main suspect and a 17-year-old were arrested on August 6, the day before the cancellations were announced. A third suspect, 18, was arrested on August 8. Their names have not been released in accordance with Austrian privacy rules.

The shows in London, the next stop after Vienna, followed a stabbing at a Swift dance class that left three little girls dead in the UK.

In a statement released after the Southport attack, Swift said she was “in complete shock” and “at no point in knowing how I could ever express my condolences to these families.” News outlets reported that Swift met with a number of survivors backstage in London.

The Vienna plot also drew comparisons to a 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, becoming the deadliest extremist attack in the United Kingdom in recent years.

Cohen on Wednesday praised the CIA’s work in preventing the planned violence, saying other “successes” in foiling plans typically go unnoticed.

“I can tell you that there were people in my agency, and I’m sure others, who thought this was a very good day for Langley,” he said, referring to CIA headquarters. “And not just the Swifties on my staff.”

The record-breaking tour is on hold until the fall.