You have probably heard about the serious attempt by ISIS sympathizers to carry out a terrorist attack at a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna and the cancelation of that leg of her tour.
Two teens, aged 17 and 19, have been arrested and a 15-year-old has been taken in for questioning. A search of one of the residences of the suspects revealed chemicals and materials to construct homemade explosives.
“The situation was serious, the situation is serious. But we can also say: A tragedy was prevented,” Austria’s Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said Thursday.
The New York Post is reporting that the plot involved driving a car into a crowd outside of Ernst Happel Stadium, the venue for all three Swift concerts, blowing it up, and attacking individuals in the crowd with machetes.
The younger suspect had just been hired on as a security guard for the venue.
We're now learning that the plot had progressed to the point where the preparations for carrying it out were almost complete. The bomb that the suspects were building was almost finished, and the younger suspect had just been hired as a security guard.
The two young men had been under surveillance by Austrian authorities, according to news sources. It's possible their social media footprint raised red flags after authorities confirmed they had both been radicalized online by the Islamic State:
The pair had displayed noticeable changes in their behavior in the leadup to their arrests, according to Franz Ruf, public security director at Austria’s Interior Ministry.
The older teen had quit his job on July 25 and told people he had “something big” planned, while the 17-year-old recently broke up with his girlfriend, Ruf said.
The pair had also made contact with others who were apparently aware of the terror plot plans.
A 15-year-old boy was also taken in for questioning Wednesday after the sinister plans were uncovered, though it was unclear if he had been arrested.
Taylor Swift, whose "Eras" tour was expected to be seen live by more than 3 million people, had earlier expressed that her biggest fear in playing to such huge crowds was the potential for a terrorist attack.
After the ISIS bombing of an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, in May 2017 that killed 22, and the mass shooting at Las Vegas’ Route 91 Harvest Music Festival, where 64 people were slaughtered, Ms. Swift penned an article for Elle Magazine.
“My biggest fear. After the Manchester Arena bombing and the Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time because I didn’t know how we were going to keep 3 million fans safe over seven months,” she said.
“There was a tremendous amount of planning, expense, and effort put into keeping my fans safe.”
She continued, “Every day I try to remind myself of the good in the world, the love I’ve witnessed and the faith I have in humanity.”
“We have to live bravely in order to truly feel alive, and that means not being ruled by our greatest fears.”
Swift's fans were bitterly disappointed. Among them, was Austria's Chancellor Karl Nehammer.
“The situation surrounding the apparently planned terror attack in Vienna was very serious,” he wrote. He thanked to the security services that “the threat could be recognized early on, tackled and a tragedy prevented."
He added a stirring call to defend "Western values."
We live in a time when violent means are being used to attack our Western way of life. Islamist terrorism threatens security and freedom in many Western countries. This is precisely why we will not give up our values such as freedom and democracy, but will defend them even more vehemently.
Austria’s Vice Chancellor Werner Kogler added in a separate post: “For many, a dream has been shattered today. On three evenings in Vienna, tens of thousands of #Swifties should have celebrated life together.
“I am very sorry that you were denied this. Swifties stick together, hate and terror can’t destroy that,” Kogler wrote.
I guess U.S. authorities should take care and watch out for all those right-wing anti-abortion, pro-family Christian conservatives. No need to worry about threats from those Islamist pussycats.