Taylor Swift terror attack suspects planned to kill ‘a huge number’ of fans, CIA official says

August 29, 2024

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(WASHINGTON) — The suspects who plotted an attack on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna earlier this month planned to kill “a huge number” of people, according to a CIA official.

CIA Deputy Director David Cohen spoke about the foiled terror attack at the Intelligence and National Security Summit in Bethesda, Maryland, on Wednesday.

“They were plotting to kill a huge number — tens of thousands of people at this concert, including I am sure many Americans — and were quite advanced in this,” Cohen said at the summit. “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.”

“As a result, hundreds of lives, undoubtedly, were saved,” he added.

Three suspects — ages 17, 18 and 19 — have been arrested in connection with the plot. Intelligence officials said they were inspired by the Islamic State group and al-Qaeda, and that bomb-making materials were found in the 19-year-old Austrian citizen’s home.

Omar Haijawi-Pirchner, head of Austria’s Directorate of State Security and Intelligence, previously said the 19-year-old confessed to the plot under interrogation.

The suspect was “clearly radicalized in the direction of the Islamic State” and allegedly intended to kill himself and “as many people as possible” outside the concert venue using knives and homemade explosives, Haijawi-Pirchner said at a news conference shortly after the arrest.

Following the arrests, Swift canceled three sold-out concerts in Vienna, which more than 150,000 fans were expected to attend.

In an Instagram post after the canceled Eras Tour shows, Swift said it was “devastating” having to call off the Vienna tour dates.

“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,” Swift wrote

Swift thanked authorities for their work stopping the alleged attack.

“Thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives,” she wrote.

Swift wrapped up her European leg of the tour with several shows in London, amid increased security, earlier this month.

Demonstrators march on Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s home as cease-fire protests continue

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(LONDON) — Anti-government demonstrators gathered in the Israeli cities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem for a second day of protests after the killing of six hostages, demanding that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu conclude a cease-fire and hostage-release deal with Hamas.

Street protests resumed across the country on Monday, coinciding with a general strike called by Israel’s largest trade union — Histadrut, or the General Organization of Workers in Israel, which has hundreds of thousands of members — which has caused disruptions to services in some areas of the country.

Protesters broke through barriers near Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Monday as they demanded progress on a deal to return the hostages in Gaza.

The current wave of demonstrations were sparked by the recovery of the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday — among them Israeli-American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The Israel Defense Forces said the captives were killed by militants “shortly” before their discovery.

The killings prompted fury in Israel, where some place blame for the deaths on Netanyahu’s months-long failure to reach a cease-fire deal with Hamas.

During a press conference Monday evening, Netanyahu asked for forgiveness from the families of the six slain hostages.

“I ask you for forgiveness that we did not succeed to bring your loved ones back alive. We were close, but we did not succeed,” Netanyahu said.

Amid the protests, airlines operating out of Ben-Gurion International Airport temporarily halted some flights on Monday morning due to the strike, according to the airport. The union said Sunday the strike was only expected to affect some departing flights. The general strike was expected to last until Monday at about 2:30 p.m. local time, according to union Chairman Arnon Bar-David.

Opposition leader Yair Lapid said in a statement while expressing his support for the general strike: “They were alive. Netanyahu and the death cabinet decided not to save them. There are still live hostages there, a deal can still be made. Netanyahu is not doing it for political reasons.”

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, meanwhile, posted on X linking the deaths of the six captives to Netanyahu’s reported decision last week to retain military control of the Philadelphi Corridor — the strip of land running along the Gaza-Egypt border — despite Hamas objections. Gallant called for the security cabinet to immediately reverse the decision in order to save the remaining hostages.

Public anger flared on Sunday night with hundreds of thousands of Israelis taking to the streets, with some engaging in clashes with police. Authorities said 29 people were arrested in Tel Aviv, as protesters set fire to barricades and launched fireworks.

Netanyahu blamed Hamas for the continued failure of cease-fire and hostage-release talks.

“Whoever murders hostages – does not want a deal,” the prime minister said in a statement released on Sunday. “Hamas is continuing to steadfastly refuse all proposals.”

“The government of Israel is committed, and I am personally committed, to continue striving toward a deal that will return all of our hostages and ensure our security and our existence,” he added.

Hamas accused Netanyahu of intentionally sabotaging negotiations by adding unacceptable new demands, which it said were “aimed at obstructing reaching an agreement to preserve his power.”

Some of Netanyahu’s far-right coalition partners have pushed back on the protesters’ demands for a deal.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, for example, noted in a post on X that he was seeking legal action to break up the general strike. Its organizers, he said, “will not be allowed to turn the country upside down.”

Strikers, he added, “serve the interests of [Hamas leader Yahya] Sinwar and Hamas.”

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.

Israeli businessman demanded million to kill Netanyahu, other leaders, police say

Israeli businessman demanded $1 million to kill Netanyahu, other leaders, police say

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a news conference in Jerusalem on September 2, 2024. (OHAD ZWIGENBERG/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

(LONDON) — Israeli police and intelligence services said they foiled an Iranian plot to assassinate top leaders including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Moti Maman, a 73-year-old Israeli businessman from the city of Ashkelon, is accused of twice smuggling himself into Iran via Turkey to meet with intelligence officials directing would-be plots from Tehran.

The discussions allegedly included potential plans to attack Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Shin Bet intelligence chief Ronen Bar and former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, among others.

Police and Shin Bet said the alleged plots were intended as retaliation for the killing of Hamas chief Ismail Hanieyh in Tehran in July, which Iran blamed on Israel.

A joint police and Shin Bet statement also accused Maman of discussing the possibility of acting as a money courier for others in Israel, locating Russian and American elements for the elimination of Tehran’s opponents in Europe and the U.S. and recruiting a Mossad “double agent.”

Maman’s purported contacts were an Iranian businessman named only as Eddie, a man named Hajjah who was presented as an Iranian intelligence agent and other unnamed intelligence personnel.

The 73-year-old is alleged to have traveled to Iran twice — in May and August 2024 — following preparatory meetings with representatives of Eddie in Turkey, the first of which took place in the southern city of Samandag in April 2024, police said.

Maman was smuggled through the Turkey-Iran border twice, the second time “hidden inside a truck cabin,” the statement said.

“The Israeli citizen demanded an advance payment of $1 million dollars before performing any action,” police and Shin Bet said. “Iranian agents refused his request and informed him they would contact him in the future.”

Maman allegedly received the equivalent of about $558,000 in euros for attending the meetings with Iranian intelligence personnel.

Authorities indicted Maman on Sept. 19.

A senior Shin Bet official described the case as “very serious,” adding that security assessments “suggest that Iranians will continue their efforts to recruit operatives in Israel for intelligence gathering and carrying out terrorist missions in Israel, including approaching individuals with criminal backgrounds to fulfill these tasks.”

Netanyahu says Israel must defeat Hezbollah in UN speech amid calls for cease-fire

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(NEW YORK) — In a defiant address to the United Nations General Assembly on Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that his country was committed to defeating both Hezbollah and Hamas — giving a pointed warning to the groups’ chief backer, Iran.

“I have a message for the tyrants of Tehran,” Netanyahu said. “If you strike us, we will strike you, there is no place. There is no place in Iran that the long arm of Israel cannot reach.”

Appearing to back up Netanyahu’s words with action, the Israeli military carried out what an Israeli Defense Force said was “a precise strike on the central headquarters of the Hezbollah terror organization” in Beirut shortly after he finished his address on Friday.

Multiple sources told ABC News the target of the attack was Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah.

It was not immediately clear whether the strike was successful, but the scale of the bombing immediately sparked concern among U.S. officials who have been applying consistent diplomatic pressure to Iran in an effort to keep the country from stepping up its role in the conflict.

The increased fighting in Lebanon has some officials fearing an all-out war in the region. The Biden administration has been working to persuade Israel to agree to a 21-day ceasefire proposal crafted by the U.S. and France.

After initially rejecting the plan outright, the Israeli government seemed to soften its stance on Thursday — signaling a willingness to negotiate.

But Netanyahu did not reference the plan in his roughly 30-minute speech on Friday and made no mention of pursuing diplomatic peace with Hezbollah.

The prime minister said Israel would “continue degrading Hezbollah until all our objectives are made” and that Israel “must defeat” them.

“As long as Hezbollah chooses the path of war, Israel has no choice, and Israel has every right to remove this threat and return our citizens to their homes safely, and that’s exactly what we’re doing,” he said.

Netanyahu asserted the U.S. would not tolerate a similar situation on its own border for “even for a single day.”

Several United Nations delegates walked out of the room as Netanyahu began his address at the U.N. in New York.

“I didn’t intend to come here this year. My country is at war, fighting for its life,” the prime minister said. “But after I heard the lies and slanders leveled at my country by many of the speakers at this podium, I decided to come here and set the record straight.”

Netanyahu continued to press for “total victory” in Gaza as he called for Hamas to surrender and release all remaining Israeli hostages. He also said Israel rejected any scenario in which Hamas remained in control of Gaza after the war.

The prime minister also claimed criticism of Israel’s human rights record was unwarranted, saying Israel had helped ship more than adequate supplies of food to Gaza and continued to “spare no effort” to protect civilian lives.

“We don’t want to see a single person — a single innocent person die. That’s always a tragedy. And that’s why we do so much to minimize civilian casualties,” he said.

However, U.S. officials say Israel’s record in Gaza is checkered. A report released by the State Department in May found that the Israeli government did not cooperate with efforts to move aid into the enclave in the early months of the war against Hamas.

The same report also stated that while Israel has “the knowledge, experience, and tools” to implement “best practices for mitigating civilian harm,” the high number of civilian casualties “raises substantial questions about whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases.”

U.S. officials have expressed similar concerns about collateral damage from Israeli military action in Lebanon.

More than 118,000 people in Lebanon have been displaced in just the last week, according to the UN. The Lebanon Ministry of Health also said hundreds of people have been killed in that time, although it’s unclear how many were combatants.

The prime minister’s office said Netanyahu would return to Israel earlier than previously planned. It also released a photo it said shows him approving the strike over the phone while sitting at a desk in New York.