A CIA official has revealed the service helped thwart an ISIS terror attack that was intended to kill ‘tens of thousands’ of fans at Taylor Swift‘s Vienna concert.
Speaking at an Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland on Wednesday, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen said the agency provided Austrian authorities with critical information about four people who were connected to the Islamic State and were planning to attack the concert.
‘They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans,’ Cohen said, reported the New York Times.
The official added that some of the individuals arrested were found with bomb-making materials and had direct access to the venue, where three Eras Tour shows were set to take place.
The shows, which were set to host an audience of 200,000, from August 8 to August 10, at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium were quickly cancelled following the arrests.
A CIA official revealed the service helped to foil an ISIS terror attack that was intended to kill ‘tens of thousands’ at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour Vienna show
One of the suspects arrested was 19-year-old ISIS fanatic who has been identified as Beran A., who lived in Ternitz south of Vienna
Beran A. was reportedly building a bomb in his parents’ back garden
On August 7, Austrian authorities arrested two people accused of plotting a terror attack, and others were arrested in following days.
Cohen did not clarify how the CIA had leaned about the planned attack but said: ‘I can tell you within my agency and others, there were people who thought that was a really good day for Langley,’ referring to the CIA headquarters, ‘And not just for the Swifties in the workforce.’
Three people have been arrested in connection with the terror plot, including 19-year-old Austrian ISIS fanatic, Beran A, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and set his sights on Swift’s tour as a target.
He is currently considered to be the main suspect.
The other arrested suspects are a 17-year-old Austrian and an 18-year-old Iraqi – but their names have not yet been released.
Beran A. was revealed to have been building a bomb in his parent’s back garden and earlier this month it was reported the teen was radicalized by notorious hate-preacher Abul Baraa in Berlin, according to German intelligence sources.
German magazine Profil, it was claimed that Beran A. attended a business school in Neunkirchen, where he had to repeat a year and was repeatedly violent towards girls, former classmates said.
He is said to have grabbed a girl of his age by the neck and pushed her against the wall during an argument.
The shows, which were set to host an audience of 200,000, from August 8 to August 10, at Vienna’s Ernst Happel Stadium were quickly cancelled following the arrests
Taylor Swift said on Instagram: ‘The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt’
Just a year later, a former classmate said he harassed and groped other girls before he ‘changed his appearance a lot and became isolated’.
It emerged that Beran A. and his accomplice had planned to attack Swift’s concert venue by driving into the crowd outside and attacking them with knives and machetes before detonating a suicide bomb to kill as many fans as possible.
Beran A. had previously worked in the same stainless steel plant in Ternitz as his father.
He was doing an apprenticeship as a retail salesman in the factory, where he had access to the plant’s laboratory, including various chemicals.
During a raid on the family home in Ternitz, bomb disposal experts earlier this month secured chemicals required to produce the explosive triacetone triperoxide (TATP), which Beran A. is said to have already experimented with.
TATP is often used by ISIS in terror attacks and requires acetone as well as hydrogen peroxide, which officials confirmed was found in the house.
Taylor Swift fans sing together on Stephansplatz on August 08, 2024 in Vienna, Austria
Following the ordeal, Taylor Swift took to Instagram to share why she initially chose to remain silent in the days after the show cancellations.
‘Having our Vienna shows canceled was devastating. 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,’ she wrote in a post on August 21.
‘But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives.’
The popstar and her team then worked closely with British authorities to ensure her five nights at London’s Wembley Stadium ran smoothly and safely.
‘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,’ she continued.
‘In cases like this one, ‘silence’ is actually showing restraint, and waiting to express yourself at a time when it’s right to.
‘My priority was finishing our European tour safely, and it is with great relief that I can say we did that.’