Despite the disappointment over the cancellation of the three concerts in Vienna, many Swifties did not let their spirits be completely dampened. Thousands of them gathered, instead of at the Ernst-Happel-Stadium, in front of St. Stephen’s Cathedral and other locations in the city center, where they loudly sang songs by their idol.
As compensation, the Mayor of Vienna arranged free entry for fans with concert tickets to various museums and outdoor pools in the city. ORF radio played Swift songs for an entire hour, and a well-known nightclub also opened its doors for free to the Swifties. A “Swifties Comfort Challenge” is underway, according to one journalist. It has now been revealed that another person has been arrested in connection with the assassination plans targeting the concerts. The 18-year-old Iraqi is said to have been in contact with the 19-year-old main suspect and, like him, had recently sworn allegiance to the terrorist organization Islamic State (IS).
Although the investigation is still ongoing, a political debate about the foiled terrorist attack has begun just a month before the parliamentary elections. The FPÖ, which has led all polls for the past year and a half, sees the “world’s only cancellation of Swift concerts” as a disgrace for Austria’s security policy, which has been largely under the control of conservative ÖVP interior ministers for the past 24 years. Austria is no longer a safe country due to misguided immigration policies, party leader Herbert Kickl stated.
However, the confessed main suspect and his 17-year-old alleged accomplice were born and raised in Austria. Their parents have roots in the Balkans, a region with which Austria has historical ties. Their Islamist radicalization is, therefore, more a failure of integration policy than of immigration policy – although it is now widely accepted that the security situation in Vienna and other larger cities has suffered due to high immigration in recent years.
The ÖVP, the chancellor’s party, quickly struck back. It sees the foiled attack as proof of its long-standing accusation that the FPÖ, under Kickl’s leadership, is a security risk for Austria. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner used a press conference on the status of the investigation to take a jab at Kickl, who had held the post in the black-blue coalition under Sebastian Kurz: He couldn’t even imagine what would have happened if the former Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BVT) had been in charge now. It had been shattered by Kickl and was thus completely isolated internationally, Karner said.
He reminded that at the beginning of his term in the Interior Ministry in early 2018, Kickl had ordered a controversial raid on the BVT. This was carried out by a police unit primarily assigned to tackle street crime, and highly sensitive data fell into the wrong hands. Although there were indeed serious grievances within the BVT, marked by incompetence and political networks, Kickl’s aggressive attempt to dismantle them was entirely inappropriate and later deemed unlawful. It destroyed the trust of international partner services, which temporarily excluded the BVT from their communications – a disastrous outcome for a small, security-politically lightweight country.
Since the ÖVP has chosen the FPÖ as its main opponent in the election campaign, it repeatedly blames Kickl for these events. It also emphasizes that the newly established State Security (DSN), which replaced the BVT three years ago, has successfully restored its international reputation. Chancellor Karl Nehammer stated on television that international cooperation is functioning very well again, and the DSN has also been admitted to the so-called Berne Club, an informal group of Western domestic intelligence agencies for information exchange. The BVT had been excluded from this group due to security concerns.
In recent weeks, the DSN played an important role in the investigation into the terror plans and, according to Nehammer, also discovered that the 19-year-old main suspect was likely not acting alone. However, the chancellor confirmed that it was a foreign service that uncovered the lead, not the DSN. According to the American broadcaster ABC, it was a US intelligence agency that detected the main suspect’s allegiance to IS on Telegram in early July and passed this crucial tip to Vienna – specifically to the Austrian military intelligence service, which then forwarded the information to the DSN.
Nevertheless, the conclusion that the new domestic service DSN still does not enjoy the trust of international partners would be incorrect. Rather, services typically communicate with their direct counterparts, as an Austrian intelligence expert explains. It is likely that the tip came from the NSA, which monitors global electronic communications and reports to the U.S. Department of Defense. It would be logical for them to contact the military service in Austria.
What is clear is that Austria is particularly dependent on international cooperation in combating extremism, as both the Interior Minister and Chancellor have emphasized. Domestic security agencies are not authorized to monitor encrypted messaging services. The ÖVP has long called for such powers. “Terrorists do not communicate by letter,” explained the Interior Minister. However, due to constitutional and data protection concerns, other parties have so far rejected their reform proposals. This, too, has become a campaign issue following the foiled attack.
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