(Newswire.net — October 7, 2015) — One of the most popular car shows in the world, BBC’s “the Fifth gear” with its charming cast, tried to destroy the Toyota pickup truck. They set it on fire, submarined it, hit it with a wrecking ball yet they still managed to start the engine and drive it. Finally, they parked it on the roof of a toll building set for demolition. After a huge explosion, the building collapsed and vanished in a pile of smoke.
The crew pulled out the Toyota from the debris, and with a minor replacement started the engine.
Maybe ISIS fighters saw that episode and decided to purchase Toyota trucks through its secret channels. However, the channels may not be so secretive. That is exactly what the US authorities are probing; chasing the hypothesis, that Toyota helped ISIS directly putting profit ahead of morality.
If the US Treasury’s Terror Financing unit found that it was obvious in whose hands Toyota trucks would end up, it would become the most embarrassing situation for this Japanese car giant.
The world’s second-largest automaker said it is “supporting” the investigation, with Ed Lewis, Toyota’s director of public policy and communications in Washington, telling ABC News the company has briefed the Treasury on supply chains in the Middle East and procedures in place to safeguard supply chain integrity. Toyota, he said, has a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities.”
The long line of Hilux and Land Cruisers were seen in ISIS promotional videos, and those vehicles come from somewhere. In one video featuring an ISIS military parade, there are two third Toyota trucks of all numerous vehicles equipped with machine guns and branded with the ISIS logo all over.
“Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, CEO of the Counter Extremism Project and former US ambassador to the United Nations.
“ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like. But in nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet — a convoy of Toyota vehicles and that’s very concerning to us.”
Toyota argued that all vehicles on the video ABC news claim was shot in Syria, were an older models and the company cannot track the stolen vehicles. However, all the same models and what appears to be the fabric white color are causing doubt that the vehicles were actually stolen.