Matthew VanDyke
Matthew VanDyke is an American international security analyst, foreign fighter, media personality, documentary filmmaker, and founder of the non-profit organization Sons of Liberty International. He first gained fame during the Libyan Civil War as a foreign fighter on the side of the uprising against Muammar Gaddafi and as a prisoner of war.
As a journalist and documentary filmmaker, VanDyke traveled throughout North Africa and the Middle East by motorcycle from 2007 to 2011. His experiences and observations during these four years led him to join the Libyan Civil War as a rebel fighter. VanDyke has publicly supported revolutions in the Middle East, and North Africa, and has worked as a filmmaker in the Syrian Civil War and fought as an armed combatant.
In 2014, he founded Sons of Liberty International, a 501 organization that provides military training, advising, and supplies to forces fighting against authoritarian regimes and terrorists.
VanDyke and his organization have been working in Ukraine since March 2022, helping the Ukrainian military in their fight against Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
In addition to SOLI's mission, VanDyke enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to fight as a combatant in the war against Russia.
Early life
Education
VanDyke attended the private schools Calvert School and Gilman School in Baltimore.In 2002, VanDyke received his bachelor's degree in political science from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, graduating summa cum laude.
VanDyke studied in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service from 2002 to 2004. He received his master's degree in Security Studies with a Middle East regional concentration in 2004. As a graduate student at Georgetown University he wrote a political column for the campus newspaper, The Hoya, and co-hosted a radio talk show on the Georgetown University radio station, WGTB.
VanDyke is a member of Mensa, a social organization whose members are in the top 2% of intelligence as measured by an IQ test entrance exam.
Motorcycle journey
In 2004, VanDyke graduated from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service with a master's degree in Security Studies with a Middle East concentration. His desire to see the Arab World for himself led him to supplement his academic pursuits with two long introspective journeys that would fundamentally change the way he viewed himself and the Arab World.The first expedition from 2007 to 2009 was a solo trip through North Africa and the Middle East on a Kawasaki KLR650 motorcycle that included journeys in Morocco, Mauritania, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Jordan, and Syria. This was followed in 2010 by a six-month motorcycle trek from Iraq, through Iran, to Afghanistan. For the latter, he traveled with his friend American photographer Daniel Britt, with the final goal of spending a few weeks embedded to film the US military in Afghanistan.
VanDyke made several close friends in Tripoli, Libya in 2008; those friendships were instrumental in making his decision to fight in the Libyan Civil War in 2011. VanDyke lived in Iraq later in 2008 and 2009, teaching English at a University to fund his motorcycle journey. He also filmed the US military in Iraq and briefly worked as a war correspondent.
VanDyke filmed his motorcycle journeys from 2007 to 2010, and some of the footage was used in the feature documentary about VanDyke, Point and Shoot, which won the Best Documentary Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2014.
Libyan Civil War
In February 2011, the Libyan Civil War began, and VanDyke was in contact with several of his Libyan friends in Tripoli via email and Facebook. "My friends were telling me about family members being arrested or disappearing or being injured. They would say to me things like, 'Why doesn’t anybody help us?' So I said I would be there."VanDyke went to Libya with the intention of joining the rebel force opposing the government of Muammar Gaddafi. At the time, there was no international military support for the rebels, and it appeared that NATO would not intervene. Gaddafi had air superiority and his military was significantly stronger than the rebel force. "I knew that they needed people to go fight. There was no NATO at that time. It didn't look like there would be NATO involvement or foreign involvement. It was a very, very desperate situation of Gaddafi's army moving towards Benghazi, and it was an all or nothing situation."
Prisoner of war
On 13 March 2011, VanDyke was struck on the head during an ambush in Brega and lost his memory of what happened. VanDyke regained consciousness briefly during his transport from Brega to a prison, which he believes was in Sirte. He was interrogated and told he would never see America again.Sometime within the next 24–48 hours VanDyke was flown to Tripoli, where he was imprisoned in the Maktab al-Nasser prison in the Abu Salim district of Tripoli. VanDyke was held in solitary confinement, in a 1.2m x 2.2m cell with a small skylight in the ceiling. He was fed and allowed to use the toilet three times a day, but was not allowed outside or given anything to read or other materials.
After 85 days, VanDyke was blindfolded, handcuffed, and transported to Abu Salim prison, where he would spend the next 81 days, also in solitary confinement. The psychological torture of the solitary confinement was made worse by VanDyke's obsessive-compulsive disorder. Prisoners broke the lock off his cell on August 24, 2011, and he escaped prison. Free from prison, VanDyke stayed at the home of a fellow escapee for a few days before relocating to the Corinthia Hotel Tripoli as a guest of the National Transitional Council, and spoke to reporters about his experience as a prisoner of war.
International media coverage
Shortly after his capture was reported, he was incorrectly described by the media as a freelance journalist. Several non-governmental organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, attempted to pressure the Gaddafi government on his behalf. On May 25, Deputy Libyan Foreign Minister Khaled Kaim said he had no information about VanDyke. In early August, after nearly five months of denials, the Gaddafi government finally admitted that VanDyke was in custody, but would not allow anyone to speak with or visit him, and would not reveal which prison he was being held in. Human Rights Watch visited Abu Salim prison and asked if VanDyke was being held there. Prison officials denied that he was there, when in fact he was.Following his escape from prison, VanDyke stated that he would not leave Libya until the country was free and all cities were liberated from Gaddafi's forces. He also committed to not leaving until all rebel Prisoners of War being held by Gaddafi forces were rescued from prison, including the three rebel fighters he was captured with. He honored both commitments, remaining in Libya and fighting in the war, and not leaving Libya until Gaddafi was defeated and all prisoners of war were freed.
VanDyke has been compared to foreign fighters of the International Brigades during the Spanish Civil War. He appears regularly in the media as a media personality and media commentator.
Joining the National Liberation Army
VanDyke and a Libyan friend, Nouri Fonas, went to Ra's Lanuf, meeting with the commander of the Ali Hassan al-Jaber Brigade, who allowed them to enlist in the National Liberation Army.VanDyke remained on or near the front lines as the rebels advanced from Harawa to Sirte. At the Battle of Sirte he took part in heavy fighting on the eastern front, most notably near Jazeera, Sirte Hotel, Sirte University, Dubai Street, and the Emirates apartment complex, as well as other engagements. During this time, VanDyke used a variety of weapons in combat and served in a variety of roles, but was primarily a DShK gunner. When not in combat, Fonas and VanDyke often gave tours of the battlefield to journalists and assisted the international press to help them safely and reliably report on the Battle of Sirte. During one such mission, they escorted CBS News correspondent Allen Pizzey and his crew to the front lines in Sirte, at which time VanDyke was filmed in combat. This was aired on the CBS Evening News in the United States, and was the first combat footage of VanDyke to emerge. Additional footage of him fighting in Sirte would later be made public in American television broadcasts and online.
Sons of Liberty International
VanDyke founded the non-profit organization Sons of Liberty International in 2014. The 501 organization provides military training, advising, and supplies to forces fighting against authoritarian regimes and terrorists.Origin
During the revolution in Libya in 2011, VanDyke became friends with American journalist James Foley and British journalist John Cantlie. The following year, he was with them in Syria in the weeks before they were kidnapped by a militant Islamist group in November 2012.In August 2014, James Foley was beheaded in a video released by ISIS. Another ISIS video was released two weeks later showing the beheading of American journalist Steven Sotloff, who VanDyke had also become friends with in Libya and who had been kidnapped in Syria in 2013.
After the murder of his friends, VanDyke founded Sons of Liberty International with the first mission being to train forces fighting against ISIS.
Missions
Sons of Liberty International's first mission was training and advising the Nineveh Plain Protection Units, an Assyrian military force fighting against ISIS in Iraq from 2014-2017. VanDyke worked closely with the NPU's commander General Behnam Aboosh, training the first group of soldiers in secret before expanding the training to a battalion of 300 with the approval of the Kurdistan Regional Government.In 2016, SOLI also began training and advising the Nineveh Plain Forces, another Assyrian force that was fighting against ISIS.
On May 3, 2016, ISIS launched a surprise attack on Teleskof with around 125 fighters and 20 technical vehicles, capturing the town where SOLI was living and working while training the NPF. SOLI, the NPF, the NPU, Peshmerga, and a Quick Reaction Force of Navy SEALs fought to recapture it from ISIS later that day.
In 2018, SOLI trained and advised a counter-terrorism force in the Philippines that was formed to defend against attacks by ISIS.
In March 2022, SOLI began training, advising, and supplying Ukrainian military forces after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They expanded in 2023 to include a demining program, finding and removing Russian landmines and unexploded ordnance in eastern Ukraine, and in 2024 began developing innovations for use on the battlefield.
While leading SOLI in Ukraine, VanDyke also enlisted in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to fight as a combatant in the war against Russia.
In 2025, VanDyke revealed that he had secretly been running covert operations with Venezuelan rebels since 2019 to overthrow the regime of Nicolás Maduro.