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The insane story of an American who ended up being a prisoner of war in Libya

March 27, 2015
Staff

WRITER

Matthew Van Dyke was just a typical American kid. Grew up in suburbia, graduated college, had little world experience. He decided to buy a motorcycle and ride across the middle east. When the Arab Spring broke out, he returned to the region to help friends he’d made there - he was captured and sent to prison. Now he’s helping Christians in Iraq fight ISIS. Incredible.

Below is a rush transcript of this segment

GLENN: I want to introduce you to somebody who a lot of people I think will say, that's crazy, man. You'll appreciate him. But you would never do it yourself.

It is a -- it's a guy who decided -- well, I'll have him tell the story. He decided he needed to grow up. And he wanted to go and motorcycle across the Middle East a few years ago.

[laughter]

That didn't work out well. Matthew VanDyke did that and then and then he had a few experiences that changed the course of his life. And now he is somebody who is rolling up his sleeves and saying, I'm going to do something. Matthew, welcome to the program.

MATTHEW: Hey, thanks for having me.

GLENN: Sure. Tell me about what happened to you on kind of your tour of the Middle East and you found yourself in a prison for Muammar Gaddafi.

MATTHEW: Well, it's a very long story, but the short version is. I graduated with a master's degree from Georgetown in security studies and wanted to go see the region myself. So I took a four-year motorcycle journey in North Africa and the Middle East and did some filming and made good friends in Libya. So a few years later when the Libyan Revolution started and my friends needed help, I went to help them. And I joined the revolution as an American in the rebel forces. Fought in the war. Was wounded and captured. Spent nearly six months as a prisoner of war. Later escaped with other prisoners and returned to combat on the front line until the end of the war. And later did some film about the Syrian Revolution and worked in Syria. And in recent times, I've turned my attention to ISIS after the murder of my friends James Foley and Steven Sotloff at the hands of ISIS. And so I formed a company that operates essentially as a nonprofit in many ways. Called Sons of Liberty International. And we recruit US military veterans to go to Iraq and consult and train Iraqi Christians to fight ISIS. And we also are going to start supplying non-lethal aid to some of these Christian groups as well.

GLENN: Okay. So I'm not sure if I agreed with you in Libya or if I agreed with you in Syria. I mean, they're all really bad horrible guys. But, you know, the destabilization of the Middle East kind of came from that and what we supported in Egypt. And, again, really bad guys so you kind of look at it and go, I don't want those guys. But I also don't want the other guys coming in. I'd really like freedom in the Middle East. But that's not what's happening.

But now you are focusing specifically on the Christians. And when we spoke last time, you were talking about what they're going through. And there's really a Holocaust of Christians that is going on right now. And they're completely defenseless. And nobody in the United States -- our government is not helping them at all.

MATTHEW: Right. It's a quiet genocide that's happening right under our noses. And the administration is doing nothing about it. The administration supports just Kurdish Peshmerga. And also supports actually some Arab tribes that they think will fight ISIS. But the Christians are left completely defenseless. They were defenseless when they were attacked. The Peshmerga did not defend them. They slipped out the back door in the middle of the night, and the Christians woke up to find ISIS in their backyards. It's a serious crisis. The whole future of Christianity is threatened in Iraq.

GLENN: Tell me what their attitude is like, these Christians who have been abandoned by the world.

MATTHEW: Well, that's exactly how they feel. They feel abandoned. They can't believe the world doesn't care about them at all. They feel like they've been left in the hands of ISIS. They're desperate for international help. They like America. They prefer American help. I've taken leaders of one of the Christian militias to meet with the State Department and make their case. We have a good relationship with the State Department. But help for them is still not forthcoming, and it's really tragic. And there needs to be a lot more outreach about it. And a lot more political pressure put on Washington to do something about this.

GLENN: Matthew, tell me about what the situation is with the Christians. I mean, what have you seen? What have you heard? I mean, there are stories of crucifixions. And I've seen the pictures of it. But nobody reports on any of this. Tell me what they're going through.

MATTHEW: Yeah. It's really strange how little is reported on the crisis facing Christians. I don't know if it's not politically fashionable to report on this, except Christians have been beheaded, crucified. Put in cages and paraded around streets. Their homes have been burned down or blown up. In some cases, explosives have been wired to the doors, so if they ever return home, they'll be killed. Christian churches have been destroyed. Ancient manuscripts have been burned. Women and young girls have been kidnapped and sold as sex slaves by ISIS or taken forcibly as jihadi brides. It's a really horrible, horrible genocide occurring.

STU: Matthew, is there some weird like PR thing they're trying to do here? Are they worried that our outreach and help will look like it's too pro-Christian in the region? What could possibly be the reason that we would ignore Christians?

MATTHEW: I'm quite sure that's the reason. The administration has this view that they think it would like sectarian. That it might increase sectarianism. That it does not look good for the United States, in their view, to be supporting Christians against Muslims. That's how the administration thinks. The administration has already had sort of an anti-US power. Anti-US involvement. Apparently anti-Christian involvement.

STU: Gee.

GLENN: I want to get your opinion on this. We just released something last night on Facebook on genocide. And we're setting up the next Root. And it's on the --

MATTHEW: I saw it. It's excellent.

GLENN: Thank you. And it's talking about the genocide that was happening in north Africa that nobody was paying attention to. And the reason why, Turkey, in particular does not want to recognize genocide. And it leads to the Christians. And we're doing a big thing all this summer on the Christians over in the Middle East. And I want to get your -- your thoughts on this. That, we're not -- we're not talking about -- that it's -- let me put it this way. It would not be an overstatement to say, a Christian Holocaust is happening right now.

MATTHEW: That's exactly what's happening. And it's happening across regions, even. I mean, I've gotten emails from Christians in the Philippines who want help. And in Nigeria. And, you know, you saw Egyptian Christians executed in Libya. And Christians being attacked in Egypt. Everywhere that the Islamic State or its followers, and even not just the Islamic State, but also there's, you know, conflicts between religious extremists and Christians all over the globe happening right now. And it's widespread. And the world knows very little about it. And I think a lot of the reason sadly is because it's viewed as not fashionable to report on it. It's not fashionable to think about it. When I started working with the Christian community, I was attacked by people I know accusing me of being a crusader or you know, stoking the flames of sectarianism. It's just, you know, you can help any group except for Christians is what it seems like.

GLENN: We're talking to Matthew VanDyke. He's the founder of sonsoflibertyinternational.com. And I want you to go there. I want you to do your own homework. I want you to check him out. And if you feel prompted to help fund what he's doing, then that would be something that maybe you should do. People want to know, how can I help the Christians? Matthew, tell me specifically what you're doing when you go over there to help the Christians.

MATTHEW: Well, starting in December, we began training a Christian army. They're called the Nineveh Plain Protection Units. We provide consulting and advising to them for the structure of their force. You know, which men they should recruit. How they should deploy -- pretty much everything helping them build up an army. Took over US military veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we started training. And in February, we trained an entire battalion. So there's nearly 350 Christian men serving in the force. They're very eager to defend their lands and fight against ISIS. And we continue to take trainers. In April, I'll return, shortly after Easter, with trainers for specialized training. And also, we have leads on supplying them with non-lethal aid and build them into a really legitimate good force. They're very US-friendly. They want to work with -- with the security forces of Iraq on a unified strategy to fight ISIS. They're very intelligent, very motivated. Very high morale and just excellent people to work with.

GLENN: Can I ask you a personal question? What is your relationship with Christianity? Why this passion for this? Is it just oppressed people or why? What role does God play in your life?

GLENN: Well, I became quite religious during my years on the road. You know, like many people, oftentimes when things went wrong, I'll admit. I call it a foul-weather Christian. You know, when things are bad, you pray a lot. I especially learned that lesson when I was a prisoner of war in Libya. For six months, pretty much all my conversations were with God only because I was in solitary confinement. So that really made me more religious in a quiet personal way that I don't talk about too much. I feel an affinity with fellow Christians in the region. They're also oppressed. They've been oppressed for a long time and persecuted for a long time, long before even ISIS came. The population of Christianity dropped from about 1.5 million in 2003 to less than 300 -- 300- to 400,000 now.

GLENN: That is phenomenal. And the idea -- and the -- the -- if ISIS has their way. There will be zero Christians in the area. Zero. I have had people from the Simon Wiesenthal come out and literally ask me to please stop concentrating so much on the Jewish persecution because -- and this is a quote. Because, Glenn, the real persecution that is happening right now is with Christians. And they are being wiped out systematically. So, again, if you would do your own homework and find out if you believe in Matthew's cause and what he's doing. All of the information is up on his website. And a chance for you to participate one way or another. Maybe you can donate. Sonsoflibertyinternational.com. This is somebody who is going over and helping the Christians. Again, with non-lethal aid, but teaching them how to defend themselves. Teaching them how to fight. Sonsoflibertyinternational.com.

STU: Now, Matthew, you're going back to the region this weekend. Right?

MATTHEW: Not this weekend. I've decided to stay for Easter. But after Easter, I'll be returning back.

STU: Wow.

GLENN: You ever concerned about not coming back? Have you considered of being beheaded and being one of those guys on the beach?

MATTHEW: Yes, and especially after my friends James Foley and Steven Sotloff were held by ISIS and executed, I thought, what if I were in their position, and also my experience in Libya. I do have a fear of being wounded and captured again. But, you know, if you believe in something, I think you should go out and do it. It's worth the risk for the cause and I believe in it strongly. So I'll take my chances. But we do take precautions. Myself and personnel. And we do the best job we can and we try to do it as safely as possible.

GLENN: I pray for your safety. God bless you. Thank you very much. Sonsoflibertyinternational.com.

From Pharaoh to Hamas: The same spirit of evil, new disguise

Anadolu / Contributor | Getty Images

The drone footage out of Gaza isn’t just war propaganda — it’s a glimpse of the same darkness that once convinced men they were righteous for killing innocents.

Evil introduces itself subtly. It doesn’t announce, “Hi, I’m here to destroy you.” It whispers. It flatters. It borrows the language of justice, empathy, and freedom, twisting them until hatred sounds righteous and violence sounds brave.

We are watching that same deception unfold again — in the streets, on college campuses, and in the rhetoric of people who should know better. It’s the oldest story in the world, retold with new slogans.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage.

A drone video surfaced this week showing Hamas terrorists staging the “discovery” of a hostage’s body. They pushed a corpse out of a window, dragged it into a hole, buried it, and then called in aid workers to “find” what they themselves had planted. It was theater — evil, disguised as victimhood. And it was caught entirely on camera.

That’s how evil operates. It never comes in through the front door. It sneaks in, often through manipulative pity. The same spirit animates the moral rot spreading through our institutions — from the halls of universities to the chambers of government.

Take Zohran Mamdani, a New York assemblyman who has praised jihadists and defended pro-Hamas agitators. His father, a Columbia University professor, wrote that America and al-Qaeda are morally equivalent — that suicide bombings shouldn’t be viewed as barbaric. Imagine thinking that way after watching 3,000 Americans die on 9/11. That’s not intellectualism. That’s indoctrination.

Often, that indoctrination comes from hostile foreign actors, peddled by complicit pawns on our own soil. The pro-Hamas protests that erupted across campuses last year, for example, were funded by Iran — a regime that murders its own citizens for speaking freely.

Ancient evil, new clothes

But the deeper danger isn’t foreign money. It’s the spiritual blindness that lets good people believe resentment is justice and envy is discernment. Scripture talks about the spirit of Amalek — the eternal enemy of God’s people, who attacks the weak from behind while the strong look away. Amalek never dies; it just changes its vocabulary and form with the times.

Today, Amalek tweets. He speaks through professors who defend terrorism as “anti-colonial resistance.” He preaches from pulpits that call violence “solidarity.” And he recruits through algorithms, whispering that the Jews control everything, that America had it coming, that chaos is freedom. Those are ancient lies wearing new clothes.

When nations embrace those lies, it’s not the Jews who perish first. It’s the nations themselves. The soul dies long before the body. The ovens of Auschwitz didn’t start with smoke; they started with silence and slogans.

Andrew Harnik / Staff | Getty Images

A time for choosing

So what do we do? We speak truth — calmly, firmly, without venom. Because hatred can’t kill hatred; it only feeds it. Truth, compassion, and courage starve it to death.

Evil wins when good people mirror its rage. That’s how Amalek survives — by making you fight him with his own weapons. The only victory that lasts is moral clarity without malice, courage without cruelty.

The war we’re fighting isn’t new. It’s the same battle between remembrance and amnesia, covenant and chaos, humility and pride. The same spirit that whispered to Pharaoh, to Hitler, and to every mob that thought hatred could heal the world is whispering again now — on your screens, in your classrooms, in your churches.

Will you join it, or will you stand against it?

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Bill Gates ends climate fear campaign, declares AI the future ruler

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The Big Tech billionaire once said humanity must change or perish. Now he claims we’ll survive — just as elites prepare total surveillance.

For decades, Americans have been told that climate change is an imminent apocalypse — the existential threat that justifies every intrusion into our lives, from banning gas stoves to rationing energy to tracking personal “carbon scores.”

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates helped lead that charge. He warned repeatedly that the “climate disaster” would be the greatest crisis humanity would ever face. He invested billions in green technology and demanded the world reach net-zero emissions by 2050 “to avoid catastrophe.”

The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch.

Now, suddenly, he wants everyone to relax: Climate change “will not lead to humanity’s demise” after all.

Gates was making less of a scientific statement and more of a strategic pivot. When elites retire a crisis, it’s never because the threat is gone — it’s because a better one has replaced it. And something else has indeed arrived — something the ruling class finds more useful than fear of the weather.The same day Gates downshifted the doomsday rhetoric, Amazon announced it would pay warehouse workers $30 an hour — while laying off 30,000 people because artificial intelligence will soon do their jobs.

Climate panic was the warm-up. AI control is the main event.

The new currency of power

The world once revolved around oil and gas. Today, it revolves around the electricity demanded by server farms, the chips that power machine learning, and the data that can be used to manipulate or silence entire populations. The global contest is no longer over barrels and pipelines — it is over who gets to flip the digital switch. Whoever controls energy now controls information. And whoever controls information controls civilization.

Climate alarmism gave elites a pretext to centralize power over energy. Artificial intelligence gives them a mechanism to centralize power over people. The future battles will not be about carbon — they will be about control.

Two futures — both ending in tyranny

Americans are already being pushed into what look like two opposing movements, but both leave the individual powerless.

The first is the technocratic empire being constructed in the name of innovation. In its vision, human work will be replaced by machines, and digital permissions will subsume personal autonomy.

Government and corporations merge into a single authority. Your identity, finances, medical decisions, and speech rights become access points monitored by biometric scanners and enforced by automated gatekeepers. Every step, purchase, and opinion is tracked under the noble banner of “efficiency.”

The second is the green de-growth utopia being marketed as “compassion.” In this vision, prosperity itself becomes immoral. You will own less because “the planet” requires it. Elites will redesign cities so life cannot extend beyond a 15-minute walking radius, restrict movement to save the Earth, and ration resources to curb “excess.” It promises community and simplicity, but ultimately delivers enforced scarcity. Freedom withers when surviving becomes a collective permission rather than an individual right.

Both futures demand that citizens become manageable — either automated out of society or tightly regulated within it. The ruling class will embrace whichever version gives them the most leverage in any given moment.

Climate panic was losing its grip. AI dependency — and the obedience it creates — is far more potent.

The forgotten way

A third path exists, but it is the one today’s elites fear most: the path laid out in our Constitution. The founders built a system that assumes human beings are not subjects to be monitored or managed, but moral agents equipped by God with rights no government — and no algorithm — can override.

Hesham Elsherif / Stringer | Getty Images

That idea remains the most “disruptive technology” in history. It shattered the belief that people need kings or experts or global committees telling them how to live. No wonder elites want it erased.

Soon, you will be told you must choose: Live in a world run by machines or in a world stripped down for planetary salvation. Digital tyranny or rationed equality. Innovation without liberty or simplicity without dignity.

Both are traps.

The only way

The only future worth choosing is the one grounded in ordered liberty — where prosperity and progress exist alongside moral responsibility and personal freedom and human beings are treated as image-bearers of God — not climate liabilities, not data profiles, not replaceable hardware components.

Bill Gates can change his tune. The media can change the script. But the agenda remains the same.

They no longer want to save the planet. They want to run it, and they expect you to obey.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Why the White House restoration sent the left Into panic mode

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

Presidents have altered the White House for decades, yet only Donald Trump is treated as a vandal for privately funding the East Wing’s restoration.

Every time a president so much as changes the color of the White House drapes, the press clutches its pearls. Unless the name on the stationery is Barack Obama’s, even routine restoration becomes a national outrage.

President Donald Trump’s decision to privately fund upgrades to the White House — including a new state ballroom — has been met with the usual chorus of gasps and sneers. You’d think he bulldozed Monticello.

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s ‘visionary.’

The irony is that presidents have altered and expanded the White House for more than a century. President Franklin D. Roosevelt added the East and West Wings in the middle of the Great Depression. Newspapers accused him of building a palace while Americans stood in breadlines. History now calls it “vision.”

First lady Nancy Reagan faced the same hysteria. Headlines accused her of spending taxpayer money on new china “while Americans starved.” In truth, she raised private funds after learning that the White House didn’t have enough matching plates for state dinners. She took the ridicule and refused to pass blame.

“I’m a big girl,” she told her staff. “This comes with the job.” That was dignity — something the press no longer recognizes.

A restoration, not a renovation

Trump’s project is different in every way that should matter. It costs taxpayers nothing. Not a cent. The president and a few friends privately fund the work. There’s no private pool or tennis court, no personal perks. The additions won’t even be completed until after he leaves office.

What’s being built is not indulgence — it’s stewardship. A restoration of aging rooms, worn fixtures, and century-old bathrooms that no longer function properly in the people’s house. Trump has paid for cast brass doorknobs engraved with the presidential seal, restored the carpets and moldings, and ensured that the architecture remains faithful to history.

The media’s response was mockery and accusations of vanity. They call it “grotesque excess,” while celebrating billion-dollar “climate art” projects and funneling hundreds of millions into activist causes like the No Kings movement. They lecture America on restraint while living off the largesse of billionaires.

The selective guardians of history

Where was this sudden reverence for history when rioters torched St. John’s Church — the same church where every president since James Madison has worshipped? The press called it an “expression of grief.”

Where was that reverence when mobs toppled statues of Washington, Jefferson, and Grant? Or when first lady Melania Trump replaced the Rose Garden’s lawn with a patio but otherwise followed Jackie Kennedy’s original 1962 plans in the garden’s restoration? They called that “desecration.”

If a Republican preserves beauty, it’s vandalism. If a Democrat does the same, it’s “visionary.”

The real desecration

The people shrieking about “historic preservation” care nothing for history. They hate the idea that something lasting and beautiful might be built by hands they despise. They mock craftsmanship because it exposes their own cultural decay.

The White House ballroom is not a scandal — it’s a mirror. And what it reflects is the media’s own pettiness. The ruling class that ridicules restoration is the same class that cheered as America’s monuments fell. Its members sneer at permanence because permanence condemns them.

Julia Beverly / Contributor | Getty Images

Trump’s improvements are an act of faith — in the nation’s symbols, its endurance, and its worth. The outrage over a privately funded renovation says less about him than it does about the journalists who mistake destruction for progress.

The real desecration isn’t happening in the East Wing. It’s happening in the newsrooms that long ago tore up their own foundation — truth — and never bothered to rebuild it.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.

Trump’s secret war in the Caribbean EXPOSED — It’s not about drugs

Bloomberg / Contributor | Getty Images

The president’s moves in Venezuela, Guyana, and Colombia aren’t about drugs. They’re about re-establishing America’s sovereignty across the Western Hemisphere.

For decades, we’ve been told America’s wars are about drugs, democracy, or “defending freedom.” But look closer at what’s unfolding off the coast of Venezuela, and you’ll see something far more strategic taking shape. Donald Trump’s so-called drug war isn’t about fentanyl or cocaine. It’s about control — and a rebirth of American sovereignty.

The aim of Trump’s ‘drug war’ is to keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

The president understands something the foreign policy class forgot long ago: The world doesn’t respect apologies. It respects strength.

While the global elites in Davos tout the Great Reset, Trump is building something entirely different — a new architecture of power based on regional independence, not global dependence. His quiet campaign in the Western Hemisphere may one day be remembered as the second Monroe Doctrine.

Venezuela sits at the center of it all. It holds the world’s largest crude oil reserves — oil perfectly suited for America’s Gulf refineries. For years, China and Russia have treated Venezuela like a pawn on their chessboard, offering predatory loans in exchange for control of those resources. The result has been a corrupt, communist state sitting in our own back yard. For too long, Washington shrugged. Not any more.The naval exercises in the Caribbean, the sanctions, the patrols — they’re not about drug smugglers. They’re about evicting China from our hemisphere.

Trump is using the old “drug war” playbook to wage a new kind of war — an economic and strategic one — without firing a shot at our actual enemies. The goal is simple: Keep the hemisphere’s oil, minerals, and manufacturing within the Western family and out of Beijing’s hands.

Beyond Venezuela

Just east of Venezuela lies Guyana, a country most Americans couldn’t find on a map a year ago. Then ExxonMobil struck oil, and suddenly Guyana became the newest front in a quiet geopolitical contest. Washington is helping defend those offshore platforms, build radar systems, and secure undersea cables — not for charity, but for strategy. Control energy, data, and shipping lanes, and you control the future.

Moreover, Colombia — a country once defined by cartels — is now positioned as the hinge between two oceans and two continents. It guards the Panama Canal and sits atop rare-earth minerals every modern economy needs. Decades of American presence there weren’t just about cocaine interdiction; they were about maintaining leverage over the arteries of global trade. Trump sees that clearly.

PEDRO MATTEY / Contributor | Getty Images

All of these recent news items — from the military drills in the Caribbean to the trade negotiations — reflect a new vision of American power. Not global policing. Not endless nation-building. It’s about strategic sovereignty.

It’s the same philosophy driving Trump’s approach to NATO, the Middle East, and Asia. We’ll stand with you — but you’ll stand on your own two feet. The days of American taxpayers funding global security while our own borders collapse are over.

Trump’s Monroe Doctrine

Critics will call it “isolationism.” It isn’t. It’s realism. It’s recognizing that America’s strength comes not from fighting other people’s wars but from securing our own energy, our own supply lines, our own hemisphere. The first Monroe Doctrine warned foreign powers to stay out of the Americas. The second one — Trump’s — says we’ll defend them, but we’ll no longer be their bank or their babysitter.

Historians may one day mark this moment as the start of a new era — when America stopped apologizing for its own interests and started rebuilding its sovereignty, one barrel, one chip, and one border at a time.

This article originally appeared on TheBlaze.com.