oyota trucks arent all ISIS has managed to buy, capture or scavenge from us. In June, CNBC reported that so far weve accidentally furnished the Islamic State with at least $219.7 million worth of weapons, vehicles and other military supplies and gear and thats just the stuff we know about. Yikes! Those evil, marauding terrorists from ISIS are still at large, but fear not: ISIS cant escape from the U.S. and our allies for long. And when we get em, were going to kick their cartoonist/woman/gay/Christian-hating Jihadi butts from here until Sunday. Theres just one problem. If were at war with ISIS, why do we keep supplying them with tanks, weapons, Humvees and shiny new Toyota trucks? CNN reports:
Theyre hard to miss. Packed with ISIS fighters and heavy weapons, Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs are featured prominently in ISIS propaganda videos.
According to ABC, the U.S. Treasury Dept.s Terror Financing unit has finally taken notice of the endless parades of shiny, new Toyota trucks starring in ISISs propaganda videos, and theyve launched an investigation. Toyotas U.S. spokesman Ed Lewis told reporters this is part of a larger inquiry into supply chains and capital flows in the Middle East. Lewis promised Toyotas full cooperation, and assures us that theyd never sell to terrorists.
Toyota has a strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities, and we have procedures and contractual commitments in place to help prevent our products from being diverted for unauthorized military use.
Whew. What a relief.
Toyota trucks: The jihadists truck of choice.
CNN tracked down Jonathan Schanzer who used to track terrorist finances for the U.S. Treasury Dept. and whos now with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to find out more. Schanzer explained that rugged outdoorsmen and off-roaders arent the only ones who love their Toyota trucks:
Toyotas is the truck that Jihadists choose for when they want to go to war. Its the same thing with Kalashnikovs [Russian automatic rifles more commonly known in the U.S. as AK-47s].
And how to these ISIS terrorists get their hands on these bad boys? Schanzer suspects they just boldly walk into the car dealerships and pay cash!
I think theyre buying them, probably, through formal channels. Theyre probably going right into the dealerships and purchasing them, and not identifying as ISIS. Who would?
Oh, and although Toyotas are the Jihadists truck of choice, they wont object to a Ford or two. Wed love to see the look on this U.S. plumbers face after seeing what Schanzer suspects ISIS picked up at an auction. As if to thumb their noses at us, they didnt even bother to remove the former owners information from the front passenger sides door.
Schanzer adds ISISs avid Toyota truck acquisition is just one example of how ISIS operates like a combination of a mafia gang and a major corporation. In other words, like a major corporation.
Heres the video with CNNs report.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AN13M_CCugk
ISIS also has tons of U.S. weapons, vehicles and other military gear.
Toyota trucks arent all ISIS has managed to buy, capture or scavenge from us. In June, CNBC reported that so far weve accidentally furnished the Islamic State with at least $219.7 million worth of weapons, vehicles and other military supplies and gear and thats just the stuff we know about.
Based on various reports, CNBC came up with the following laundry list of supplies the U.S. has so kindly provided to ISIS so far.
2,300 Humvee armored vehicles at $70,000 each: $16 million
40 M1A1 Abram tanks at $4.3 million each: $172 million
52 M198 Howitzer mobile gun systems at $527,337 each: $2.7 million
74,000 Army machine guns at $4,000 each: $29 million
TOTAL: $219.7 MILLION in military weapons, vehicles, and other supplies and gear for ISIS.
How does the Islamic State get hold of all these U.S. weapons? We deliver them, either directly or through the tattered remnants of Iraqs military. Jeremy Salt, a political analyst in Ankara, Turkey, gives RT.Com quite the scathing earful:
Do you think the Islamic States advance would have been so successful without access to this U.S. military hardware by mistake, by default? Let me just briefly revise the history of American blunder over the past couple of years with regard to weapons ending up in the hands of Islamic State.
Salt then reminded us of our nations major blunders for supplying weapons to ISIS for the past couple of years.
Accidental air-dropping of weapons and supplies intended for the Syrian Kurds into Islamic State territory.
This didnt just happen once, it happened several times.
Weapons and supplies seized by ISIS during the falls of Mosul (Iraq), Ramadi (Iraq), AND Palmyra (Syria).
Salt doesnt even bother explaining how the George W. Bush administration created ISIS by invading Iraq on false pretenses and chasing off all those heavily armed and well-trained Baathist soldiers. But he does ask how its even possible that U.S. intelligence and the military both of which are among the most sophisticated in the world could have possibly NOT seen what was coming.
What Salt says here about ISISs routing of Palmyra also applies to the sack of Mosul and Ramadi.
Are we seriously to believe the United States couldnt see them coming? Didnt see those pickup trucks racing across the Syrian Desert? When they create massive plumes of dust, for one thing? Then they get to Palmyra, and they take over the city.
Salt has a point. How could we have possibly missed miles of vehicles chock- full of masked ISIS militants waving guns and black flags while churning up choking clouds of desert dust visible from miles around? Its almost as though weve ignored all this on purpose.
As for President Barack Obama, hes made some smart moves. But how can he slam the brakes on a runaway crazy train thats been lurching headlong for decades? After all, Reagans the one who armed and trained Al Qaeda back when they fought the former USSR as the Mujahideen resistance fighters. Also, we helped Saddam Hussein take power in Iraq in 1963, and Hussein was on the CIAs payroll since at least 1959. And then we overthrew him and allowed the region to devolve into chaos because George W. Bush isnt into nation building.
Heres the video with the news report from RT on ISISs acquisition of U.S. military supplies, weapons, gear and vehicles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPqxvvt0O7E