CIA: Taylor Swift concert terror plot aimed at killing thousands

[New Sancai Compilation First Release] The deputy director of the CIA said that a plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, Austria, was foiled earlier this month. The suspect tried to kill "tens of thousands" of fans, and then the CIA Intelligence was discovered that disrupted the plans and led to the arrests.

The CIA informed Austrian authorities of the plan, which it said contained links to the Islamic State. The intelligence and subsequent arrests ultimately led to the cancellation of three sold-out Taylor Swift tours, a devastating blow to fans who traveled from around the world to attend the concerts.

CIA deputy director David Cohen spoke about the failed plot this week at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland.

“They plotted to kill a large number of people — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I believe a lot of Americans — and they were pretty advanced at it,” Cohen said on August 28. “The reason why the Austrians are These arrests were made because the agency and our intelligence community partners provided them with information about what this ISIS-linked group planned to do."

Austrian officials said the main suspect is a 19-year-old Austrian man who was inspired by the Islamic State group. He is said to have planned to use knives or homemade explosives to attack outside the stadium, where more than 30,000 fans are expected to gather. There were probably another 65,000 fans in the stadium. Investigators found chemicals and technical equipment during a raid on the suspect's home.

Last week, Swift broke her silence about the cancellation after performing in London. "The cancellation of our Vienna show is devastating," she wrote in a statement posted on Instagram. "The reason for the cancellation fills me with a new sense of fear and a huge sense of guilt because so many people planned to come to these shows."

She thanked the authorities — “Thanks to them we mourn the concert, not the life,” she wrote — and said she was waiting to speak until the European leg of the Time tour was over to prioritize safety.

"Let me be very clear: I will not speak publicly about something if I believe that speaking publicly about it might anger people who want to harm fans who come to my shows," she wrote.

The Vienna conspiracy has also drawn comparisons to the 2017 suicide bombing at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, which killed 22 people. The bomb detonated at the end of Grande's concert as thousands of young fans were leaving, becoming Britain's deadliest extremist attack in recent years.

Cohen praised the CIA's work in preventing planned violence and said other counterterrorism "successes" in thwarting plots often go unnoticed.

The record-breaking tour will be on hold until the fall.

(Compiled by: Wang Jimin)

(Editor: Jiang Qiming)

(Source of the article: Compiled and published by New Sancai)