A “freedom fighter and prisoner of war in the Libyan civil war”, an “award-winning filmmaker”, a “war correspondent in Iraq and Afghanistan”, founder of “Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), the first military contracting firm run on non-profit principles”, and “international security analyst”. This is how Matthew Aaron VanDyke, the US national arrested on charges of conspiring to carry out terrorist activities against India, describes himself on his website.
VanDyke, 45, is accused of leading a group of Ukrainians in a conspiracy to carry out terror activities against India. While he was detained at Kolkata airport on Friday, three Ukrainains were detained at Lucknow airport and three at Delhi airport the same day. All were brought to Delhi and produced before a magistrate Saturday, who sent them to three days’ custody. On Monday, their custody was extended until March 27.
Now in the custody of the National Investigation Agency (NIA), VanDyke, according to his website, was born in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, in 1981, and completed his political science degree from the University of Maryland with a 4.0 GPA. A few years later, after getting his Master’s Degree in Security Studies from the Edmund A Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, he chose the “adventurous life”, says the website.
According to the website, VanDyke spent his 20s motorcycling across North Africa and the Middle East, and joined “a group of rebels who were preparing to fight against Gaddafi”. When he was about 30 years old, he was arrested by the then regime of Gaddafi in Libya, and was in prison for nearly six months, only being freed after rebel forces released prisoners who broke off the lock to his cell, it says.
On his X account, where he has 5.84 lakh followers, VanDyke has claimed that he fought in Libya and Ukraine. He has also claimed to be running covert operations in Venezuela. “Free Iran,” his bio reads. The profile picture on his X account is the same as the man in the NIA’s custody, several officials told The Indian Express.
Official sources also said they were aware of his website.
The NIA and the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) have not commented on the matter.
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According to his bio, VanDyke worked as a war correspondent for The Baltimore Examiner newspaper briefly in 2009. He also directed a documentary film about Syria, and founded the “first military contracting firm run on a non-profit model” called Sons Of Liberty International (SOLI), it says.
According to its website, SOLI provides “free security consulting and training services to vulnerable populations to enable them to defend themselves against terrorist and insurgent groups”. It says that it first gained international attention for training the Nineveh Plain Forces (a Christian militia in Iraq) to defend their villages against ISIS. SOLI recruits US military veterans for consulting and training local security forces, says the website, adding that it also recruits “experts from various fields for speciality consulting depending on the client’s needs”.
SOLI, according to its website, provides “training, support and resources necessary for oppressed populations to liberate themselves” and helps in taking action “where the international community and governments have failed to assist at-risk populations facing security crises”. Its self-proclaimed goal is to “combat the rise of extremist militancy by assisting liberation movements before the cycle of violence spawns extremist ideologies”.
VanDyke and the Ukrainians are alleged to have illegally entered restricted areas in Mizoram, crossed into Myanmar without permits, trained ethnic armed groups and facilitated the supply of drone consignments from Europe to insurgent-linked networks.
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In its FIR, the NIA said the group crossed into Myanmar with the intention of carrying out a “pre-scheduled training for Myanmar-based Ethnic Armed Groups (EAGs)”. These EAGs, according to the NIA, are known to support insurgent organisations operating in India in the domain of “drone warfare, drone operations, assembly and jamming technology etc., targeting the Myanmar Junta”.
The six Ukrainians have been identified as Hurba Petro, Slyviak Taras, Ivan Sukmanovskyi, Stefankiv Marian, Honcharuk Maksim and Kaminskyi Viktor. The Ukrainian government has lodged an official protest with the MEA, demanding the “immediate release” of its citizens and “unimpeded consular access”.
The seven men have been arrested under Section 18 (punishment for being part of a terrorist conspiracy) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), along with other relevant sections.
