Matthew VanDyke

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 (SSP) 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 for people in the top 2% of intelligence as measured by an IQ test entrance exam.

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.

Sons of Liberty International

VanDyke founded the non-profit organization Sons of Liberty International (SOLI) in 2014. The 501(c)(3) organization provides military training, advising, and supplies to forces fighting against authoritarian regimes and terrorists.

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.

Sons of Liberty International's first mission was training and advising the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU), 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 (KRG).

In 2016, SOLI also began training and advising the Nineveh Plain Forces (NPF), 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 (QRF) 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.

In March 2026, India's National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrested VanDyke in Kolkata, accusing him of participating in carrying out terrorist activities linked to drone operations. According to documents submitted by the NIA before a court in Delhi, VanDyke was among seven foreign nationals arrested, including six Ukrainian nationals.

The agency alleged that the accused were involved in the procurement and transfer of drone consignments from Europe, which were reportedly delivered to groups operating in India's northeastern region and across the border in Myanmar.

According to the NIA’s First Information Report (FIR), some of the accused had entered India on tourist visas and travelled to states such as Assam and Mizoram, a state that is illegal for foreigners to travel without a Protected Area Permit (PAP), and before allegedly crossing into Myanmar without required permits. The agency further alleged that they conducted training related to drone operations for Myanmar-based ethnic armed groups, which it claims have links to insurgent organizations in Northeast India.

The accused were booked under provisions of India’s Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), including charges related to participation in a terrorist conspiracy. As of March 2026, the investigation was ongoing, with the NIA seeking further custody to determine the full extent of the alleged network, including funding sources, operational routes, and additional associates.

According to anonymous defence figures who provided information to The Print, VanDyke previously traveled through India to enter Chin State in 2025. Data seized from electronic devices (including drones) recorded training of ethnic Chin groups in Myanmar. It said that as many as 14 Ukrainians had entered India on tourist visas on different dates and travelled by air to Assam's Guwahati. From there, they allegedly travelled to Mizoram without the mandatory Restricted Area Permit (RAP) or Protected Area Permit (PAP). They subsequently entered Myanmar illegally to undergo pre-scheduled training in drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology. The training was intended for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs) targeting the country's military junta, the federal agency claimed.

In September 2026, the NIA dropped all terror charges against VanDyke and the 6 other Ukrainian nationals. They instead charged him under Sections 21 and 23 of the Immigration and Foreigners Act, which dealt with violations of entry and movement of foreigners, far lighter charges. The spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) Randhir Jaiswal when questioned simply stated it was a 'legal matter.' NIA also stated that it will continue its investigation into VanDyke's links with Myanmar based militants.