Terrorists drive nice trucks, U.S. counter-terrorism officials have noticed.
Countless news videos and social media posts show Islamic State (ISIS) terrorists driving around in what appear to be new Toyota trucks.
The U.S. has asked Toyota to explain how hundreds, if not thousands, of the ubiquitous white pickups ended up in enemy hands.
ABC News tells us “Toyota Hilux pickups, an overseas model similar to the Toyota Tacoma, and Toyota Land Cruisers have become fixtures in videos of the ISIS campaign in Iraq, Syria and Libya, with their truck beds loaded with heavy weapons and cabs jammed with terrorists.”
The videos must make for effective propaganda. Thousands of Americans and Europeans are trying to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS.
Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles, but is trying to assist the Terror Financing unit of the U.S. Treasury Department in its investigation.
I’m going to go out on a limb and say ISIS is stealing or capturing the Toyota trucks.
After all, ISIS also drives Humvees, mine resistant trucks and other vehicles given to U.S.-trained Iraqi forces, who tend to lose men, equipment and cities whenever they fight.
Videos released this summer show ISIS insurgents using former U.S. militarized vehicles to parade bodies of their enemies around.
It is believed about 2,300 militarized Humvees were lost by Iraqi forces during one battle this year.
It’s not just trucks. The Iraqi military loses a lot of weapons too. Reuters reports ISIS captured at least 40 M1A1 main battle tanks, 74,000 machine guns, and as many as 52 M198 howitzer mobile gun systems.
A U.S. general says “ISIS has captured thousands of American-supplied vehicles. So both sides travel in the same vehicles and use the same weapons.”
To destroy the tanks now being used by ISIS, the U.S. is sending the Iraqi military 175 M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, 55,000 rounds of main tank-gun ammunition, $600 million in howitzers and trucks, $700 million worth of Hellfire missiles and 2,000 AT-4 rockets.
Will the new equipment be lost too?
Maybe, but earlier this year Congress approved spending $1.2 billion more to toughen up Iraqi forces.
Maybe it isn’t Toyota who needs to answer difficult questions.
http://newstome.blog.ajc.com/2015/10/07/u-s-asks-toyota-to-explain-why-isis-has-so-many-new-trucks/
Someone is making money, while American sheeple get clipped..
simple answer , you paid for them we delivered .
Jack , you beat me to it
“U.S. asks Toyota to explain why ISIS has so many new trucks”
I’m sure U.S. is “asking” this because a million people are asking the U.S. the same question, so they have to publicly address it by launching a BS investigation into the matter. It’ll all be forgotten in a week, and we’ll buy more new trucks for ISIS as soon as they need them.
” Thousands of Americans and Europeans are trying to travel to the Middle East to join ISIS.”
I doubt there’s any truth to this whatsoever, but if Americans are actually joining ISIS, it’s probably because they can’t find a militia group to join here, and know that something needs to be done about the destruction of this country. If they can’t find other Americans to work with, they may see ISIS as their only hope.
81 Toyota dealers in Saudi Arbia
Please, spare me the theatrics.
two second search on the web and the answer falls into your lap. Where there’s a Toyota car, there is a Toyota truck. Wow! a real head scratcher.
http://www.alibaba.com/countrysearch/SA/toyota-pickup.html
http://www.carbay.sa.com/en/new-car/dealers/toyota
YEP….. SAUDI ARABIA.ALLY TO USISRAHELL
“Toyota has to answer some difficult questions”
Question number one,
“Which Saudi Arabian Toyota dealership do you want the first 50 megaton hydrogen bomb dropped?”
It’s common knowledge US supplied over 50 new Toyota trucks to the Syrian rebels. It looks like the same 50 trucks in every photo, does it not? Mystery solved. Plenty of running around money for gas and photo ops too.
Recently, when the US State Department resumed sending non-lethal aid to Syrian rebels, the delivery list included 43 Toyota trucks.
Hiluxes were on the Free Syrian Army’s wish list. Oubai Shahbander, a Washington-based advisor to the Syrian National Coalition, is a fan of the truck.
“Specific equipment like the Toyota Hiluxes are what we refer to as force enablers for the moderate opposition forces on the ground,” he adds. Shahbander says the US-supplied pickups will be delivering troops and supplies into battle. Some of the fleet will even become battlefield weapons.
“You can absolutely expect for many of those trucks to be mounted with crew-served machine guns or other type of equipment, military equipment, that the opposition forces have access to. I mean, that’s one of the reasons why the Toyota Hilux is such an important force multiplier, because it could be used both for humanitarian purposes and for operational purposes as well.”
http://www.pri.org/stories/2014-04-01/one-toyota-pickup-truck-top-shopping-list-free-syrian-army-and-taliban
“The U.S. has asked Toyota to explain how hundreds, if not thousands, of the ubiquitous white pickups ended up in enemy hands.”
Why were they asking?
Did they order Hondas?
I see more ford trucks than anything!