The CIA tipped off the Austrian authorities about a plot to attack Taylor Swift concerts in Vienna and kill “tens of thousands” of fans, the agency’s deputy director has said.
CIA Deputy Director David Cohen told the annual intelligence and national security summit in Maryland on Aug. 28 that it was intelligence from the agency that alerted the Austrians, who are not permitted to monitor smartphone messages.
Three teenagers between the ages of 17 and 19 were arrested in Vienna and nearby Ternitz and have been accused of planning a terrorist attack against the U.S. pop star’s three sold-out concerts on Aug. 8, 9, and 10, all of which were canceled by the organizers.
Under Austrian law, none of the suspects can be identified by name.
“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.
“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 resumed her global Eras Tour the following week in London and has now taken a break before concluding the last leg in Canada and the United States in the fall.
One of the most controversial proposals was for the Austrian interior and defense ministries to be able to monitor the content of phone messages and to “control encrypted messages by introducing programs into a system or other suitable technical measures.”
It’s currently not permitted under Austrian law to monitor messenger services or smartphone apps such as WhatsApp and Telegram.
Several European countries have struggled in recent years with balancing privacy laws, which prevent monitoring of communications, with the need to obtain intelligence about terrorist plots.
‘Good Day for Langley’
“I can tell you within my agency, and I’m sure in others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley and not just the Swifties in my workforce,” Cohen said in a reference to the agency’s headquarters in Virginia.The Austrian authorities have said the main suspect, a 19-year-old Austrian national, was inspired by ISIS.
They have said he planned an attack outside the stadium with either homemade explosives or knives or possibly both.
The prosecutors say detectives found chemical substances and technical devices during a raid of the suspect’s home.
Defense lawyer Werner Tomanek said earlier this month that the prosecution had exaggerated the case against his client, the 19-year-old main suspect.
Tomanek told the Austria Press Agency (APA) that his client had been indulging in “fantasies” and had no intention of mounting an actual attack on the Ernst Happel Stadium.
“He had neither the means nor the possibility and the explosives to carry this out,” he told APA.
The description of the Vienna plot had echoes of a 2017 attack in Manchester, England, in which a suicide bomber, Salman Abedi, killed 22 people.
Abedi detonated his device at the end of Ariana Grande’s concert as thousands of young fans were leaving the Manchester Arena.
It was the deadliest terrorist attack in the UK since 2005, when four suicide bombers detonated devices on London buses and underground trains, killing 52 people.
