A thwarted terror plot planned for one of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour stops in Vienna earlier this month was intended to kill a “huge” number of people, the deputy director of the CIA has revealed.
“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including, I am sure, many Americans,” David S. Cohen said at the Intelligence and National Security Summit on Thursday, August 29, as seen in C-SPAN footage. “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.”
Cohen noted that the individuals arrested in connection with the terror plot were “found with explosives” and “bomb-making material” and had access to the concert venue, Ernst-Happel-Stadion. He said that “hundreds of lives undoubtedly were saved” by the plot being discovered in advance.
“Those sorts of successes don’t get a lot of attention broadly. I can tell you within my agency … there were people who thought that was a really good day, not just the Swifties in my workforce,” he quipped.
All three of Swift’s Vienna shows, which were scheduled for August 8, 9 and 10, were canceled on August 7 after the terror plot was discovered. Concert organizers Barracuda Music announced the news via Instagram, noting that they had “no choice but to cancel” given “confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack at Ernst Happel Stadium.”
Swift, 34, addressed the incident after she wrapped up the European leg of the tour at London’s Wembley Stadium the following week.
“Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. 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 via Instagram on August 21. “But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together. I decided that all of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London. My team and I worked hand in hand with stadium staff and British authorities every day in pursuit of that goal, and I want to thank them for everything they did for us.”
Swift then explained why she’d waited to speak out.
“Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows,” she wrote. “In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to. My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.”
Three suspects — ages 17, 18 and 19 — have been arrested in connection with the terror plot. Law enforcement officials revealed on August 8 that the main suspect began planning the attack in July and allegedly posted an oath of allegiance to the current leader of the Islamic State group military online.
“He wanted to carry out an attack in the area outside the stadium, killing as many people as possible using the knives or even using the explosive devices he had made,” Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, Austria’s Head of the Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, said of the main suspect, noting that he was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State and thinks it is right to kill infidels.”
The terror plot came one month after a stabbing at a Swift-themed dance class in the U.K. left two children dead.
“The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock,” Swift wrote via her Instagram Story on July 30. “The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and first responders. These were just little kids at a dance class. I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”
