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Taylor Swift Terror Plot: CIA Says Plan Was Intended to Kill “Tens of Thousands”
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Date:2025-04-17 00:54:22
More news is coming to light about the alleged terror plot planned at Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows in Vienna.
At the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Maryland Aug. 28, CIA Deputy Director David Cohen provided further details of the alleged plan to kill thousands of people in Vienna.
“They were plotting to kill a huge number—tens of thousands of people at this concert,” Cohen said at the Summit, “including I am sure many Americans—and were quite advanced in this. 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.”
He further expressed the sentiments from the team at the CIA headquarters after they were able to help put a stop to the alleged plot.
“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,” Cohen continued. “And not just the Swifties in my workforce.”
A 19-year-old Austrian man, the prime suspect in the alleged plot, was arrested on Aug. 8 along with a 17-year-old Austrian man and subsequently an 18-year-old Iraqi citizen.
The Head of Austria's Directorate of State Security and Intelligence Omar Haijawi-Pirchner said in a press conference on Aug. 8 the suspects had planned to kill a “large” number of people at major events, including Taylor’s Eras tour, in the Austrian capital. The discovery of the planned attack led to the “Karma” singer canceling her three-show run scheduled for Aug. 8, Aug. 9 and Aug. 10.
Taylor, meanwhile, kept mum about the alleged plot until nearly two weeks later, when she broke her silence after concluding her final stops on the European leg of the tour.
"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," the 34-year-old wrote on Instagram Aug. 21. "But I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives."
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