CIA Reveals Role in Thwarting Attack on Taylor Swift Concerts

The deputy director of the CIA revealed Wednesday that intelligence from the agency was integral in the disruption of a terrorist plot targeting a recent Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. The agency provided intel on four suspected terrorists linked to the Islamic State to Austrian authorities, who then made arrests on August 7 and in the days following, the New York Times reports. "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," David S. Cohen said at the annual Intelligence and National Security Summit outside Washington, DC. Three suspects, males ages 17 to 19, have been arrested; a fourth, who is 15, has been questioned but not arrested, Fox News reports.

"They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans," Cohen said. Swift canceled three of her Vienna shows after the plot was uncovered, and later opened up about the "devastating" experience. Austrian authorities say they found bomb-making materials and homemade explosives in at least one suspect's home, and also found materials from ISIS and al-Qaeda in one of the teens' homes. (More Central Intelligence Agency stories.)