Truck formely belonging to Texas plumber used by ISIS now

[Borgholio]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/1 ... 41070.html

A Texas plumber says he has no idea how his company's work truck ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria.

The truck, a black Ford F-250 with the logo for Texas City's Mark-1 Plumbing emblazoned on the door, appeared in a tweet posted Monday by the Ansar al-Deen Front, a jihadist group operating near Aleppo. In the photo, a man fires an anti-aircraft gun mounted to the bed of the truck, presumably where plumbing equipment used to sit.

Jeff Oberholtzer, the son of the owner of Mark-1 Plumbing, told the Texas outlet The Galveston Daily News that the company sold the truck to AutoNation in October 2013, believing the auto retailer would remove the plumbing decals -- a step Oberholtzer normally does himself, but didn't do this time. He says he has no idea how the vehicle ended up in Syria.

Reached for comment by The Huffington Post on Wednesday, an AutoNation spokesman denied any direct involvement with the truck's odd destination. He said the company sent the truck to be sold at auction, and that it traded hands repeatedly before apparently ending up in Syria.

"AutoNation took the truck in a trade-in, we immediately sent it to an auction house, the auction house then took the title and sold it to a local used car dealer," he said, distancing AutoNation from the scenario. "AutoNation was nothing but the pass-through for this vehicle.”

Oberholtzer told media that Mark-1 has received more than a thousand calls and faxes, some of them threatening, since the Ansar al-Deen Front's tweet circulated Monday.

"We have nothing to do with terror at all," Oberholtzer told Texas news source KHOU. "To think something we would use to pull trailers, now is being used for terror, it's crazy. Never in my lifetime would think something like that."

Posted for laughs. Sucks to be the former owner...

[cmdrjones]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/12/1 ... 41070.html

A Texas plumber says he has no idea how his company's work truck ended up in the hands of Islamic extremists in Syria.

The truck, a black Ford F-250 with the logo for Texas City's Mark-1 Plumbing emblazoned on the door, appeared in a tweet posted Monday by the Ansar al-Deen Front, a jihadist group operating near Aleppo. In the photo, a man fires an anti-aircraft gun mounted to the bed of the truck, presumably where plumbing equipment used to sit.

Jeff Oberholtzer, the son of the owner of Mark-1 Plumbing, told the Texas outlet The Galveston Daily News that the company sold the truck to AutoNation in October 2013, believing the auto retailer would remove the plumbing decals -- a step Oberholtzer normally does himself, but didn't do this time. He says he has no idea how the vehicle ended up in Syria.

Reached for comment by The Huffington Post on Wednesday, an AutoNation spokesman denied any direct involvement with the truck's odd destination. He said the company sent the truck to be sold at auction, and that it traded hands repeatedly before apparently ending up in Syria.

"AutoNation took the truck in a trade-in, we immediately sent it to an auction house, the auction house then took the title and sold it to a local used car dealer," he said, distancing AutoNation from the scenario. "AutoNation was nothing but the pass-through for this vehicle.”

Oberholtzer told media that Mark-1 has received more than a thousand calls and faxes, some of them threatening, since the Ansar al-Deen Front's tweet circulated Monday.

"We have nothing to do with terror at all," Oberholtzer told Texas news source KHOU. "To think something we would use to pull trailers, now is being used for terror, it's crazy. Never in my lifetime would think something like that."

Posted for laughs. Sucks to be the former owner...

Anecdotal: I was at a threat briefing a few years ago (can't recall exactly, due to attending the same damn training events at one of 3-4 military posts over and over for 7-8 years) where the counter IED instructor claimed that over half of the Vbieds detonated in baghdad were vehicles from Dearborn michigan. I thought he was exagerrating... now, I'm not so sure.

[PhilosopherOfSorts]

Anecdotal: I was at a threat briefing a few years ago (can't recall exactly, due to attending the same damn training events at one of 3-4 military posts over and over for 7-8 years) where the counter IED instructor claimed that over half of the Vbieds detonated in baghdad were vehicles from Dearborn michigan. I thought he was exagerrating... now, I'm not so sure.

That doesn't surprise me, Ford builds a lot of cars and trucks, and they're sold all over the world, not just in the U.S.

[General Zod]

So this is how people end up on he FBI's do not fly list . . .

[cmdrjones]

Anecdotal: I was at a threat briefing a few years ago (can't recall exactly, due to attending the same damn training events at one of 3-4 military posts over and over for 7-8 years) where the counter IED instructor claimed that over half of the Vbieds detonated in baghdad were vehicles from Dearborn michigan. I thought he was exagerrating... now, I'm not so sure.

That doesn't surprise me, Ford builds a lot of cars and trucks, and they're sold all over the world, not just in the U.S.

let me clarify, he meant that they were SOLD in Dearborn, and then ended up in baghdad.... somehow.

[Irbis]

That doesn't surprise me, Ford builds a lot of cars and trucks, and they're sold all over the world, not just in the U.S.

That's weird, when you looked at news sources and photos from middle east most popular truck/pickups (especially in warfare) seemed to be Toyota cars. I recall significantly fewer cars of other brands.

[cmdrjones]

That doesn't surprise me, Ford builds a lot of cars and trucks, and they're sold all over the world, not just in the U.S.

That's weird, when you looked at news sources and photos from middle east most popular truck/pickups (especially in warfare) seemed to be Toyota cars. I recall significantly fewer cars of other brands.

The Toyota hilux to be exact... they are the godl standard for toys for TOTs.... (Terrorists On Technicals)

VBIEDS just have to be able to accelerate while carrying a lot of weight and look relatively unobtrusive.

[Simon_Jester]

To be fair, they're also the gold standard for Everybody on Technicals; there's a reason that the final phase of the Chad-Libyan War was called "the Toyota War."

[houser2112]

Anecdotal: I was at a threat briefing a few years ago (can't recall exactly, due to attending the same damn training events at one of 3-4 military posts over and over for 7-8 years) where the counter IED instructor claimed that over half of the Vbieds detonated in baghdad were vehicles from Dearborn michigan. I thought he was exagerrating... now, I'm not so sure.

That doesn't surprise me, Ford builds a lot of cars and trucks, and they're sold all over the world, not just in the U.S.

let me clarify, he meant that they were SOLD in Dearborn, and then ended up in baghdad.... somehow.

Could this have something to do with it?

1945: A mosque existed in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Arab-American population in the U.S.

As of the 2010 census the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and ethnic composition was 89.1% Whites, 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0% reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[13] 41.7% were of Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data).[14]

[cmdrjones]

Could this have something to do with it?

1945: A mosque existed in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest Arab-American population in the U.S.

As of the 2010 census the population of Dearborn was 98,153. The racial and ethnic composition was 89.1% Whites, 4.0% black or African-American, 0.2% Native American, 1.7% Asian, 0.2% Non-Hispanics of some other race, 4.0% reporting two or more races and 3.4% Hispanic or Latino.[13] 41.7% were of Arab ancestry (categorized as "White" in Census collection data).[14]

Well..... It kinda speaks for itself don't it?

[Thanas]

You are both so far off it isn't funny, but good thing to know the first thing your minds went to was "clearly muslims at home supporting ISIS".

Here's the deal: A lot of used cars that no longer are economically viable or do not meet safety standards anymore get sold to the middle east. For example, both my previous cars are now in Lebanon/Syria as well.

[White Haven]

Be that as it may, Thanas, I don't think it's entirely out of line to speculate about a particular hotspot (Dearborn, Michigan) as a notable outlier amidst an overall trend.

[Thanas]

Be that as it may, Thanas, I don't think it's entirely out of line to speculate about a particular hotspot (Dearborn, Michigan) as a notable outlier amidst an overall trend.

No, not if you actually speculate instead of going "MUSLIMS". Heck, the far more sensible idea is to just say "cars are sold to the middle east each day, maybe some family dealership has inroads there".

[cmdrjones]

Be that as it may, Thanas, I don't think it's entirely out of line to speculate about a particular hotspot (Dearborn, Michigan) as a notable outlier amidst an overall trend.

No, not if you actually speculate instead of going "MUSLIMS". Heck, the far more sensible idea is to just say "cars are sold to the middle east each day, maybe some family dealership has inroads there".

Which is probably the case, the two aren't even close to mutually exclusive. I was thinking more along the lines of: Probably best not to discuss what is probably a gold mine of information for US 3 letter agencies right here because #1 someone will shout RACISM sooner or later and #2 I have no other information to offer to speculate ABOUT, unless you want my "RUMINT from dearborn" experiences.

[Thanas]

No, I am not interested in hearsay or delusions unless you have actual evidence to present here.

[Tanasinn]

Covering your ears and going "THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST" doesn't explain the earlier-alleged unusual correlation between Dearborn's very high Muslim population and the sale of vehicles from there to terrorist groups abroad.

It's not a particularly radical suggestion. The British have already had several embarrassing incidents with British Muslims heading to the Levant for some war tourism. Could just be the fact that Michigan is a major automotive manufacturing and sales hotspot. Or it could be that the above-referenced claim about point of origin of vehicles is totally specious. But it's certainly not outlandish to speculate that terrorist groups in the Levant may have fellow-travellers now settled in Dearborn. Get enough of any group together and you're bound to get a few rotten eggs.

[Thanas]

Covering your ears and going "THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST" doesn't explain the unusual correlation between Dearborn's very high Muslim population and the sale of vehicles from there to terrorist groups abroad.

Lol, so when my car ends up in Syria and gets captured by ISIS (a hypothetical which could have already happened) then please explain the unusual correlation between my very Christian population and the sale of vehicles from there to terrorist groups abroad. Do you realize how laughable that sounds? I mean, did you really think that ISIS is buying vehicles from the US on purpose? Or that people donating vehicles is a good way when there are thousands of equally crappy vehicles around?

[Grumman]

Covering your ears and going "THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST THAT'S RACIST" doesn't explain the earlier-alleged unusual correlation between Dearborn's very high Muslim population and the sale of vehicles from there to terrorist groups abroad.

Ford sells almost 50% more pickup trucks than their closest competitor: 733,345 Fords to 500,351 Chevrolets in 2013. It isn't unusual that people who want pickup trucks would buy pickup trucks from the company that makes the most pickup trucks.

[Simon_Jester]

Put this way.

If half the car bombs in Baghdad were all made from trucks that were being sold in the same town, it would at the very least suggest some sort of interesting correlation. Maybe there really was a buyer of used trucks in Dearborn, Michigan (it'd only take one, or a small group) funneling money into buying clunker trucks and shipping them overseas.

Then again, maybe it's just that half the trucks in Baghdad were, before the war, smuggled into the country by a ring of totally non-terrorist, secular black marketeers who bypassed the embargoes and happened to have connections in Dearborn, Michigan from which they bought the cars.

[LaCroix]

Well, it is a well known fact that the sale of exported used cars in the middle east (or africa) is usually firmly in the hands of certain families who buy the cheapest they can get en gros, and then fill a ship to the brim with them for export. They then repair them cheap over there there before sale, done by shake hands and payment... So I would assume that every car going there has been registered to someone in a city with a sizeable muslim minority before it. It just shows that the biggest exporter or bulk-buyer lives there.

Ask a car dealer - half the cars they take for payment go to these guys instead of the press. I've heard the line "Well, I can still put it in export" more than once when I gave my old car in payment. Upon asking, they told me that everything with more than a 100000 km on the clock will be sent to africa or middle east. They just can't sell them (there are only so many young people interested in cheap cars, and they won't buy a beat up combi, thy want something small), and these exporters buy EVERYTHING, and pay better than their metal value.

Thus, I wouldn't wonder if the other half of these IED vehicles also all came from the same 3-4 locations.

[cmdrjones]

No, I am not interested in hearsay or delusions unless you have actual evidence to present here.

hey hey hey MY delusions are worth a buck a piece

[cmdrjones]

Well, it is a well known fact that the sale of exported used cars in the middle east (or africa) is usually firmly in the hands of certain families who buy the cheapest they can get en gros, and then fill a ship to the brim with them for export. They then repair them cheap over there there before sale, done by shake hands and payment... So I would assume that every car going there has been registered to someone in a city with a sizeable muslim minority before it. It just shows that the biggest exporter or bulk-buyer lives there.

Ask a car dealer - half the cars they take for payment go to these guys instead of the press. I've heard the line "Well, I can still put it in export" more than once when I gave my old car in payment. Upon asking, they told me that everything with more than a 100000 km on the clock will be sent to africa or middle east. They just can't sell them (there are only so many young people interested in cheap cars, and they won't buy a beat up combi, thy want something small), and these exporters buy EVERYTHING, and pay better than their metal value.

Thus, I wouldn't wonder if the other half of these IED vehicles also all came from the same 3-4 locations.

Both what you said and what simonjester said are probably closer to the truth. In any case, IF there is a terrorist element here, the above would HAVE to be the case in order for the shadier things to go on. if there is no sea, the fish have nowhere to swim. Not saying it's actually going down like that, but without said export market it would be trivially easy to track some terrorist carbomb pipeline. These exporters are no more evil than the scrap metal dealers of the early 20th century that fed old junk to japan that became thier war machine that they used to ravage asia.

[LaCroix]

Well, it is a well known fact that the sale of exported used cars in the middle east (or africa) is usually firmly in the hands of certain families who buy the cheapest they can get en gros, and then fill a ship to the brim with them for export. They then repair them cheap over there there before sale, done by shake hands and payment... So I would assume that every car going there has been registered to someone in a city with a sizeable muslim minority before it. It just shows that the biggest exporter or bulk-buyer lives there.

Ask a car dealer - half the cars they take for payment go to these guys instead of the press. I've heard the line "Well, I can still put it in export" more than once when I gave my old car in payment. Upon asking, they told me that everything with more than a 100000 km on the clock will be sent to africa or middle east. They just can't sell them (there are only so many young people interested in cheap cars, and they won't buy a beat up combi, thy want something small), and these exporters buy EVERYTHING, and pay better than their metal value.

Thus, I wouldn't wonder if the other half of these IED vehicles also all came from the same 3-4 locations.

Both what you said and what simonjester said are probably closer to the truth. In any case, IF there is a terrorist element here, the above would HAVE to be the case in order for the shadier things to go on. if there is no sea, the fish have nowhere to swim. Not saying it's actually going down like that, but without said export market it would be trivially easy to track some terrorist carbomb pipeline. These exporters are no more evil than the scrap metal dealers of the early 20th century that fed old junk to japan that became thier war machine that they used to ravage asia.

It's even easier - if you want a car to blow it up, you only want something of reasonable size that will run a few hundred miles before breaking down. And if it breaks down, you simply arm it where it is, it's at the roadside, after all.

From what I saw in one documentary on an exporter in Germany, he alone sends one ro/ro ship per month to egypt, and that ship is crammed, with cars squeezed so tight they all have scratches from loading them onto the ship. They fit 4-5000 cars on a ship designed for 3-4000. That's just one guy, and there's at least one guy like this for every country having access to the sea.

All the cars are sold off right after down the ramp, a bit of haggle, a handshake, and it's yours, no documentation, nothing. Capitalist paradise. So you don't need shady dealings - you simply have somebody hang around with the legitimate dealers when the ship arrives, have cash, and buy whatever looks suitable.