The U.S. Central Intelligence Agency helped prevent a terrorist attack in Vienna at a concert by American singer Taylor Swift in early August. For this purpose, intelligence was provided to the Austrian authorities. This was announced by Deputy Director of the CIA David Cohen, UNN reports with reference to Voice of America.
Details
According to Cohen, the CIA provided Austria with information about four people suspected of having links to the Islamic State group who were planning the attacks. They were arrested. The suspects were found to be in possession of bomb-making materials and evidence of their access to the concert venue where the concerts were to take place.
The Austrian authorities reported that at least one of the arrested, a 19-year-old Austrian citizen, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State.
They were planning to kill a huge number of people, tens of thousands at this concert, including, I'm sure, many Americans. The Austrians were able to make these arrests because the agency and our partners in the intelligence community provided them with information about what this ISIS-affiliated group was planning to do
Recall
On August 7, three concerts of Taylor Swift were canceled in Vienna due to the threat of a terrorist attack. The singer was scheduled to perform on August 8, 9, and 10 at the Ernst Happel Stadium.
About 200,000 tickets were sold for the concerts, and another 100,000 viewers were supposed to watch the broadcasts outside the stadium. On social media, the singer thanked the authorities for saving lives.
The reason for the cancellation filled me with a new sense of fear and enormous guilt, because so many people were planning to come to these concerts. But I was also grateful to the authorities for making us miss the concerts, not the lives