Terrorists wanted to kill “tens of thousands” at Taylor Swift’s concert, says CIA official

The suspects in foiled attack on Taylor Swift's Eras Tour Concerts in Vienna earlier this month were planned to kill “tens of thousands” of the artist's fans, Deputy CIA Director David Cohen said on Wednesday at a security conference in Maryland.

“They were planning to kill a huge number of people – tens of thousands of people at that concert, including, I'm sure, many Americans – and were pretty well advanced in doing so,” Cohen said, according to the Associated Press. “The Austrians were able to make these arrests because the agency and our intelligence partners provided them with information about what this ISIS-affiliated group was up to.”

Swift's concerts in Vienna, which were supposed to begin on August 8, were cancelled by promoter Barracuda Music when it was informed by Austrian authorities of the thwarted plan.

The move left tens of thousands of Swift's fansmany of whom had travelled to Vienna from other parts of the country or abroad specifically to attend a show, were devastated.

“At these resale prices I won't be able to see Taylor anymore so I'm pretty devastated,” said a social media user named Caroline shortly after the shows were canceled. “This was supposed to be my 'you beat cancer' journey so it hurts to lose her.”

Another social media user named Sarah wrote that she had been “waiting to see Taylor in my home country since I was 9, now I'm 25… to have all of that taken away from me by a few men who are so full of hate for no reason at all makes me so angry I can't put it into words.”

The main suspect in the alleged plot was arrested along with a 17-year-old on August 6, a day before the cancellations were announced. Austrian officials said the main suspect, whose name they are not naming for privacy reasons, was inspired by IS. They said he planned to attack outside the stadium with knives or explosives.

A third suspect18 years old, was arrested on August 8th.

At the security conference on Wednesday, CIA Deputy Director Cohen praised the CIA's work and said that “successes” in counterterrorism often go unnoticed, AP reported.

“I can tell you that there were people in my agency and certainly in other agencies who thought that was a really good day for Langley,” he said, referring to the location of the CIA headquarters in Virginia. “And not just the Swifties on my staff.”