According to the deputy director of the CIA, the foiled terrorist attack at the Taylor Swift Eras Tour concert in Vienna was intended to “kill a huge number of people, tens of thousands,” including Americans.
On Wednesday, at the annual Intelligence Summit held just outside Washington, D.C., David S. Cohen shared an update on the investigation into the terror plot planned earlier this month that led the pop star to cancel all of his shows in the Austrian capital.
“They were planning to kill a huge number of people, tens of thousands at this concert, I'm sure many Americans,” Cohen said, as reported by The New York Times“The Austrians were able to make those arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them with information about what this ISIS-linked group was planning to do.”
On August 7, Austrian concert promoter Barracuda Music announced that the three Eras Tour shows scheduled at Ernst Happel Stadium would be canceled due to an apparent terrorist plot. Austrian authorities have since arrested three people accused of planning the attack, including one who was found with bomb-making materials.
Cohen stressed that they had no doubt that the aim of the plot was to attack the show at Eras Tor, killing large numbers of spectators.
Weeks after the shows were canceled, Swift broke her silence about the planned attacks, as well as expressing gratitude to authorities. “Having our Vienna shows canceled has been devastating,” she wrote on Instagram. “The reason for the cancellations has filled me with a new sense of fear and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many people had planned to come to those shows.”
The superstar continued, “But I was also very grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were mourning concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who came together.”
Cohen did not say how the CIA learned of the planned attack. The times reported that 200,000 people were expected to attend Swift's performances in Vienna.