The foiled terrorist plot at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month was intended “to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people” including Americans, the deputy director of the CIA said today.
David S. Cohen, speaking at the Intelligence Summit outside Washington D.C. also revealed that the information used by Austrian police on August 7 to disrupt the plot was provided to the authorities by the CIA.
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“They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans,” Cohen said, as reported by The New York Times, NBC and other news organizations. “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.”
Swift canceled three shows at the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna after being informed by Austrian authorities about a bomb plot planned by four people with ties to the Islamic State. At least three arrests have been made.
The Eras Tour superstar called the cancellations “devastating,” writing in a social media post, “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. But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.”
More than 170,000 people were expected to attend the Vienna concerts. Cohen did not disclose how the CIA obtained the information that thwarted the planned bombing.
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