A senator referenced a foiled terrorist plot at a Swift concert while discussing the Signal message fiasco that rocked Washington, D.C., this week.
From pop culture to global security matters, Taylor Swift’s impact knows no bounds.
During a Tuesday Senate hearing in Washington D.C., the pop star’s name surfaced during a serious conversation about the scandal involving a group chat where high-ranking government officials discussed plans to bomb Yemen and disparaged European allies, all after accidentally adding The Atlantic’s editor Jeffrey Goldberg to the private text chain.
Swift was mentioned while Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) underscored the importance of the U.S. sharing classified information with foreign partners.
“America first cannot mean America alone,” Warner told the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The intelligence we gather to keep Americans safe depends on a lot of allies around the world who have access to sources we don’t have.”
To illustrate his point, Warner cited a thwarted terrorist plot that targeted one of Swift’s concerts in Vienna last summer.
“We all remember — because it was declassified — last year, Austria worked with our community to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals,” he said.
The Grammy-winning artist was forced to cancel three shows in Austria last August after police in Vienna arrested three people who allegedly planned to detonate explosives outside a show at Ernst Happel Stadium. Authorities had expected thousands of fans to gather outside the stadium in addition to the 65,000 people who had tickets.
The CIA was the first to alert Austrian authorities of the scheme, which was allegedly inspired by the Islamic State.
Shockwaves went through the political world on Monday when Goldberg published an account of how he was inadvertently added to what appeared to be a top secret military conversation.
During the conversation, Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth talked about how targeting Yemen would benefit European nations, who were informed of the plans.
“VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading,” Hegseth wrote at one point. “It’s PATHETIC.”
Source: huffpost