C.I.A. Warning Helped Thwart ISIS Attack at Taylor Swift Concert in Vienna

The C.I.A. provided intelligence to Austrian authorities that allowed them to disrupt a plot that could have killed thousands of people at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna this month, the agency’s deputy director said on Wednesday.

David S. Cohen, the deputy director of the C.I.A., said the agency had provided information about four people connected to the Islamic State who were planning an attack. Some of the individuals arrested were found with bomb-making material and had access to the concert venue, where several shows were scheduled to take place in the days after the arrests.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number, tens of thousands of people at this concert, I am sure many Americans,” Mr. Cohen said at the annual Intelligence Summit just outside Washington, D.C. “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.”

On Aug. 7, Austrian authorities arrested two people accused of plotting a terror attack; others were arrested in subsequent days. Austrian officials said one of the men, a 19-year-old Austrian, had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State and had focused on Ms. Swift’s tour as a target.

Read more: New York Times