Pop superstar Taylor Swift has reached the upper levels of United States national security, again … she was just name-dropped this morning in a Senate intelligence hearing about global threats and American allies.
In this morning’s annual briefing … intelligence officials are facing extra scrutiny after a bombshell report published Monday revealed a magazine journalist had accidentally been added to a Signal chat among defense officials discussing classified plans about a U.S. bombing attack on Yemen a week and a half ago. In the chat, European allies were belittled and dismissed.
In the hearing today, Virginia Senator Mark Warner pressed Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, and FBI Director Kash Patel about the dangers of alienating allies … and brought up the thwarted terror attacks plotted against Taylor Swift concerts in Austria last summer as an example of the benefits of friendly nations sharing crucial security information.
Warnersaid … “That sharing of information saves lives, and it’s not hypothetical — we all remember, because it was declassified — last year when Austria worked with our community to make sure to expose a plot against Taylor Swift in Vienna that could have killed literally hundreds of individuals.”
Last August, Vienna State Police arrested three suspects in an alleged plot to detonate explosives and attack concertgoers at a Swift show at Ernst Happel Stadium. Swift canceled the Austrian leg of the tour and beefed up security for the rest of her European tour
TMZ.com
ICYMI … The Atlantic magazine Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldbergpublished an article yesterday detailing how he was invited into a private chat on Signal … which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President J.D. Vance, Gabbard, Ratcliffe, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among multiple other officials.
In the ongoing chat, Hegseth and Vance discussed how the bombing plan benefits European allies … and Hegseth responded to Vance, writing … “VP: I fully share your loathing of European free-loading. It’s PATHETIC.”
Goldberg outlines how he watched as apparently classified details about an upcoming bombing attack against the Houthis in Yemen were discussed … and how he realized it was all real on the afternoon of March 15, when the attacks occurred just as they had been discussed.
Intelligence officials using a commercially available messaging app to discuss such matters is raising security concerns in Washington … in addition to the sloppy addition of a civilian journalist into the official chat.
Subpoena Taylor!
