Global terrorism thread

In the newest Metal Gear game you can research these rapidly inflatable decoys for distracting snipers and luring baddies into an ambush.

It's just sorta funny is all.

The United States Army has developed a modern dummy tank. It imitates the M1 Abrams tank not only in appearance, but also in its heat signature, in order to appear real to infrared detectors. One of these decoys can take fire from the enemy and still appear to be operational, thus delaying the enemy by as much as an hour, as they are forced to destroy the decoy. These M1 decoys cost only $3,300, compared to $4.35 million for a real M1. The decoy is also portable: when disassembled, it weighs only fifty pounds, and is roughly the same size as a duffel bag. Its generator—about the size of a 12 inch television—facilitates inflation, so that two people can erect the decoy in a few minutes. Occasionally, real tanks carry a dummy on board, to deploy when needed.

U.S. counter-terror officials have asked Toyota, the world’s second largest auto maker, to help them determine how ISIS has managed to acquire the large number of Toyota pick-up trucks and SU Vs seen prominently in the terror group’s propaganda videos in Iraq, Syria and Libya, ABC News has learned.

Toyota says it does not know how ISIS obtained the vehicles and is “supporting” the inquiry led by the Terror Financing unit of the Treasury Department — part of a broad U.S. effort to prevent Western-made goods from ending up in the hands of the terror group.

“We briefed Treasury on Toyota’s supply chains in the Middle East and the procedures that Toyota has in place to protect supply chain integrity,” said Ed Lewis, Toyota’s Washington-based director of public policy and communications.

Toyota has a “strict policy to not sell vehicles to potential purchasers who may use or modify them for paramilitary or terrorist activities,” Lewis said. He said it is impossible for the company to track vehicles that have been stolen, or have been bought and re-sold by middlemen.

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 Iraqi Ambassador to the United States, Lukman Faily, told ABC News that in addition to re-purposing older trucks, his government believes ISIS has acquired “hundreds” of “brand new” Toyotas in recent years.

“This is a question we’ve been asking our neighbors,” Faily said. “How could these brand new trucks... these four wheel drives, hundreds of them — where are they coming from?”

ISIS propaganda videos show gunmen patrolling Syrian streets in what appear to be older and newer model white Hilux pick-ups bearing the black caliphate seal and crossing Libya in long caravans of gleaming tan Toyota Land Cruisers. When ISIS soldiers paraded through the center of Raqqa, more than two-thirds of the vehicles were the familiar white Toyotas with the black emblems. There were small numbers of other brands including Mitsubishi, Hyundai and Isuzu.

“Regrettably, the Toyota Land Cruiser and Hilux have effectively become almost part of the ISIS brand,” said Mark Wallace, a former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations, who is CEO of the Counter Extremism Project, a non-profit working to expose the financial support networks of terror groups.

“ISIS has used these vehicles in order to engage in military-type activities, terror activities, and the like,” Wallace told ABC News. “But in nearly every ISIS video, they show a fleet — a convoy of Toyota vehicles and that’s very concerning to us.”

Toyota says many of the vehicles seen in ISIS videos are not recent models. “We have procedures in place to help ensure our products are not diverted for unauthorized military use,” said Lewis, the Toyota executive.

But, Lewis added, “It is impossible for Toyota to completely control indirect or illegal channels through which our vehicles could be misappropriated.”

The leader of the Sydney mosque attended by a 15-year-old who killed a police worker has called for an end to violent extremism, saying Friday that Muslims who reject Australian values should leave the country.

Radicalised Farhad Jabar, who shot dead the 58-year-old last week while reportedly shouting religious slogans before dying in a gunbattle with police, was a regular at the mosque in the western multi-cultural Parramatta district.

Mosque chairman Neil El-Kadomi explained to reporters what he had told the faithful at morning prayers and ahead of a planned evening protest by right-wingers to close the building down.

"I said you waited long time to come to this country. You should not abuse the privilege you are Australian, which is very important. Get out. We do not need scumbags in the community. We reject terrorism."

Kadomi said Muslim youth needed education, adding that Jabar was too young "to know what he was doing".

CCTV footage from Parramatta mosque reportedly shows Jabar meeting several men there on the day of the killing, although police have not confirmed this.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull also advised people to leave if Australian values were "unpalatable". "It is not compulsory to live in Australia," he told a press conference urging Australians not to go down the path of violent extremism.

"If you find Australian values, you know, unpalatable, then there's a big wide world out there and people have got freedom of movement."

Turnbull, who met earlier in the day with figures from the Muslim community, asked his countrymen to "call out hatred" saying "violent extremism is a challenge to the most fundamental Australian values".

"The success of our society is founded on mutual respect and we have to recognise that people who preach hatred, preach extremism, are undermining the success of this extraordinary country," he said.

Friday also saw the Grand Mufti of Australia, Ibrahim Abu Mohamed, and other community and religious leaders address the media amid rising community tensions.

Mohamed said violent religious extremism was a rare but serious issue threatening the whole community.

"Sadly, a very, very small number of Australians of Muslim faith have chosen this path," he said.

Police issued a warning ahead of the planned Parramatta protest called by a far-right group.

"Police want to remind any member of the public against engaging in reprisal actions or inciting violence against any community group or individuals," a statement said.

Canberra is concerned at the prospect of lone-wolf attacks by individuals inspired by groups such as Islamic State, and has cracked down on Australians attempting to travel to conflict zones including Syria and Iraq.

The authorities lifted their terror threat alert to high a year ago, introduced new national security laws and have conducted several counter-terrorism raids.

In September 2014, Melbourne police shot dead a "known terror suspect" who stabbed two officers and in December, Iranian-born self-styled cleric Man Haron Monis and two hostages were killed following a 17-hour siege at a Sydney cafe.

Witnesses said the two explosions happened seconds apart shortly after 10:00 am (3 a.m. EDT) as hundreds gathered for a planned "peace" march to protest against the conflict between Turkish security forces and Kurdish militants in the southeast.

Violence between the state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militants has flared since July, when Turkey launched air strikes on militant camps in response to what it said were rising attacks on the security forces. Hundreds have since died.

Those involved in the peace march tended to the wounded lying on the ground, as hundreds of stunned people wandered around the streets. Bodies lay in two circles around 20 meters apart where the explosions had taken place.

The attacks come three weeks ahead of a parliamentary election in Turkey and at a time of multiple security threats, not only in the restive southeast but also from Islamic State militants in neighboring Syria and home-grown leftist militants.