- Matthew Aaron VanDyke is in Indian custody for illegally entering India and Myanmar for training insurgents
- He runs Sons of Liberty International, recruiting fighters to train local populations in conflict zones
- VanDyke prefers former special forces for training local forces near frontlines under tough conditions
American national Matthew Aaron VanDyke, who is in Indian custody and faces charges of illegally entering India to go to Myanmar for training ethnic insurgents, has left behind a large digital footprint going back over a decade.
In one of them, he explained how he recruited "fighters" to be sent to wars across the world to help the local population fight for themselves.
"We are not sending foreigners over to fight wars for other people. We're sending people over who can help the local population fight wars for themselves. We have a limited amount of time, possibly only four to six weeks, to get them trained, ready to take part in the offensive," VanDyke said.
Whether that explains his presence in India today, and the allegation that he went to Myanmar to train ethnic armed organisations (EAOs), are matters under investigation.
But what's the motivation for the man who runs the security firm, Sons of Liberty International, behind doing all this?
"There are no other groups that are working with Christian militias that we work with. Liberty is a universal right. I want Sons of Liberty to be able to change the course of history," VanDyke said in a show by the YouTube channel, History NOW, over a decade ago.
In the series on VanDyke's work made after ISIS began taking cities after cities in Iraq starting 2014, he spoke about training Iraqis to kill them.
What kind of 'candidates' he recruited for his work, whose nature is not of the ordinary kind?
"We get all types... But we are very selective. So what I'm doing now is going through applicants," he said in one of the History NOW videos, sitting in front of a laptop.
"I'm looking for people who want to come because they believe in the model of training local forces to resolve problems for themselves. We have a preference for former special forces, especially Green Berets," VanDyke said.
"... The training area will be very close to the frontline. I try to dissuade them now because it's a very, very different way of operating than when they served in an organised military. The accommodation is probably going to be given in an abandoned house in the town," he said to somebody on a mobile phone.
"Electricity comes and goes. It's within walking distance of the frontline. And there won't be surf and turf."
VanDkye was arrested at Kolkata airport on March 13. Six others, Ukrainian nationals, were also arrested from different cities.
According to the first information report (FIR), all of them came to India on tourist visas on separate dates, flew to Guwahati, and then travelled to Mizoram without the mandatory papers before illegally crossing into Myanmar, where EAOs are fighting against the junta.
There, his group trained EAOs on advanced asymmetric warfare techniques, including drone operations, and even brought drones with them.
The EAQs trained by VanDyke and his men are suspected to have helped their ethnic counterparts in India, and insurgent groups that are on India's banned list. The investigation is going on.
