Taylor Swift concert attack: CIA says suspects wanted to kill ‘tens of thousands’

CIA officials said that the men who tried to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna had plans to kill “tens of thousands” of the singer’s fans before the agency discovered the plot.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke about the planned attacks when he appeared at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit this week, The Associated Press reported.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said, according to the AP. “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 did not say how the CIA came to get the information about the alleged planned attacks, The New York Times reported.

“I can tell you within my agency and others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” Cohen said referring to CIA headquarters. “And not just for the Swifties in the workforce.”

The main person accused of planning the attack was a 19-year-old man from Austria who was inspired by the Islamic State group. He was going to use homemade explosives and knives to attack an area where 30,000 people were going to converge for the concert. Another 65,000 were inside Ernst Happel Stadium for the Aug. 8 concert.

Swift was scheduled to perform on Aug. 8, 9 and 10 but all three sold-out concerts were canceled because of the threat. Over the three nights, about 200,000 people were expected to attend, the Times reported.

The 19-year-old and another 17-year-old were both taken into custody on Aug. 6. A third 18-year-old person was arrested on Aug. 8. None of their names have been released due to Austrian privacy laws.

The country’s interior minister said that foreign intelligence agencies had to assist in the investigation because Austrian agencies cannot monitor text messages.

The 19-year-old suspect’s attorney said the claims against his client are “overacting at its best” and that the Austrian government was “presenting this exaggeratedly” to be able to get more power for surveillance, the AP reported.

Swift last week called the concert cancelations “devastating” but while thanking those who discovered the alleged plot, said “Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”

She broke her silence on the cancelation after the European portion of the Eras Tour came to an end.

“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,” Swift explained, according to the AP.

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