{"id":33173,"date":"2015-10-14T05:00:57","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T09:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=33173"},"modified":"2015-10-13T22:30:09","modified_gmt":"2015-10-14T02:30:09","slug":"toyotas-isis-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/10\/14\/toyotas-isis-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"Toyota’s ISIS problem"},"content":{"rendered":"

In The Diplomat<\/em>, Franz-Stefan Gady<\/a> looks at the problem for Toyota because their vehicles have become the favourites of ISIS and other terrorist groups:<\/p>\n

The United States has launched an investigation to determine how the terror group ISIS was able to acquire a large number of Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs ABC News<\/em><\/a> reported this week.<\/p>\n

Japanese car manufacturer Toyota, the world\u2019s second-largest auto maker, has pledged full cooperation with U.S. authorities and is \u201csupporting\u201d the inquiry led by the Terror Financing division of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe briefed Treasury on Toyota\u2019s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity,\u201d according to a D.C.-based spokesperson of Toyota. However, \u201cit is impossible for Toyota to completely control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated,\u201d he added<\/a>.<\/p>\n

According to Toyota sales data, the number of Hilux and Land Cruisers sold tripled from 6,000 in Iraq in 2011 to 18,000 sold in 2013. However, sales dropped to 13,000 in 2014.<\/p>\n

Toyota Hilux pickup trucks \u2013 a lightweight virtually indestructible vehicle<\/a> \u2013 have been prominently featured in various ISIS propaganda videos and played an important role in ISIS\u2019 conquests of large stretches of Iraqi territory last summer by acting as a force multiplier.<\/p>\n

Armed with a .50 caliber machine gun the Hilux truck\u2019s maneuverability provided insurgents quickly with close-range fire support during their attacks. Back in 2010, the counterinsurgency expert David Kilcullen referred to the Hilux as \u201ca modern version of light cavalry. They move weapons into positions to fire, and can also shift people around very quickly, with a quick dismount.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Full disclosure: I’m currently driving a ten-year-old Toyota pickup truck (a Tacoma, which I think is the North American version of the Hilux). My next vehicle is likely to be another Toyota pickup truck. They may not be technically indestructible, but I’ve been very impressed with the performance and durability of my particular vehicle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In The Diplomat, Franz-Stefan Gady looks at the problem for Toyota because their vehicles have become the favourites of ISIS and other terrorist groups: The United States has launched an investigation to determine how the terror group ISIS was able to acquire a large number of Toyota pickup trucks and SUVs ABC News reported this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,370,5],"tags":[111,982,257,499],"class_list":["post-33173","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan","category-middle-east","category-military","tag-cars","tag-isis","tag-terrorism","tag-toyota"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-8D3","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33173"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33173\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":33174,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33173\/revisions\/33174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}