Matthew VanDyke, (l.), through his Sons of Liberty nonprofit security company, is training Iraqi Christians to fight ISIS.
ishtartv.com-
Fox News
Just
12 miles north of the ISIS-controlled city of Mosul, an American filmmaker and
self-styled revolutionary is running a boot camp for Christians willing and
able to fight for their lives and faith against the murderous Islamic terror
organization.
Matthew
VanDyke, an award-winning documentary filmmaker who escaped a Libyan prison
after going there to help overthrow Col. Muammar Qaddafi in 2011, is helping to
train hundreds of long-persecuted Assyrian Christians in everything from
firearms to close quarters combat. VanDyke, who founded the security
contracting firm company Sons of Liberty (SOLI), is working with an unnamed
U.S. military veteran to get the Christian conscripts who range in age from 18
to 60 or older, ready to take on the ominous black clad army that lies dug in
to Iraq's second-largest city just over the horizon. Earlier this week, the
first battalion of the Nineveh Plain Protection Units (NPU) graduated from the
boot camp.
"They
need to demonstrate that they can maintain and be responsible for their own
security to encourage their people to stay – or else, within a couple of
generations, there won’t be any Christians left in Iraq."
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Matthew VanDyke
“It’s
designed to help local sectarian forces in local communities facing threats of
terrorism, insurgency or oppressive regimes to be able to defend themselves,”
VanDyke told FoxNews.com from a base in the Kurdish region of Northern Iraq,
where he hopes to help train 2,000 men. “It’s the step where the international
community has failed or is moving too slow.”
The
Assyrians, sometimes called Syriac Christians, belong to a variety of Christian
sects and are a stateless ethnic group. One of the oldest civilizations from
ancient Mesopotamia, they have their own culture, language and heritage sharply
distinct from that of Arabian or Kurdish people. They speak a near-extinct
language connected to Aramaic, the language spoken by Jesus, and remain
stateless – over the years enduring immense persecution and land
expropriations.
While
the Kurds have proven a worthy adversary of ISIS, with their battle-hardened
Peshmerga pushing back the terrorist army in cities and villages throughout
northern Iraq and Syria, the Christians and other religious minorities
including the Yazidis have been slaughtered, starved and sent fleeing
throughout the region since ISIS broke from Al Qaeda and began establishing a
so-called caliphate in the region a year ago. Iraq's Christian population,
which numbered 1.5 million in 2004, has dwindled in the face of the ISIS
onslaught while, VanDyke charges, the world has stood by.
“The
international system has failed [Christian] communities around the world in
recent years," said VanDyke, a 35-year-old Baltimore native who obtained a
master's degree from Georgetown University's vaunted Walsh School of Foreign
ServiCe before embarking on a mercurial career that has seen him film and fight
throughout Northern Africa and the Middle East. "Christianity is about to
be wiped out in Iraq.
“They
are down to less than 400,000. Many of those who have left will never
return," he continued. "They need to demonstrate that they can
maintain and be responsible for their own security to encourage their people to
stay – or else, within a couple of generations, there won’t be any Christians
left in Iraq. This is their last chance.”
n
December, the Assyrian Democratic Movement – the primary political party of
Assyrians in Iraq – announced the development of the NPU, a militia made up
mostly Christian volunteers. VanDyke said the Christians realized they had
to fight for themselves when ISIS began a major assault on Christian-held areas
of Iraq such as the Nineveh Plains last year and the Peshmerga withdrew without
telling them.
“Some
people woke up and looked outside and there was ISIS in their backyard, so they
don’t trust anyone else but their own defense and nor should they,” VanDyke
said. “They’ve had women kidnapped; their homes have been taken from them in
the fight with ISIS.”
However,
bringing this Christian group together and training them to take up arms has
been something of a political challenge. VanDyke said that the minority faction
was persistently denied requests by the Iraqi Central Government and Peshmerga
to form their own force, so they began training covertly. With a nascent
force now established and ready to fight the common enemy, any opposition from
the Iraqi or Kurdish governments has dropped.
Klado
Ramzi, an Iraqi Christian who serves on the NPU Leadership Committee, told
FoxNews.com that the group's goals go beyond just protecting its people and
territory from ISIS, but include acquiring the long-term capability of
defending itself.
“We
have had roots in Iraq for thousands and thousands of years," Ramzi said.
"It is very important that we protect our language, our being. We respect
all people in Iraq, but we refuse to be part of the fighting between Kurds and
Arabs. We want to be independent and we need our own system of security for the
NPU area.”
The
Assyrian fighters supply their own weapons at the camp, which VanDyke began
covertly in December. In addition to basic military training, VanDyke and his
associates are helping leaders within the Christian communities forge
international diplomatic connections, including with the U.S. State Department.
Sons of Liberty bills itself as a full-service military training, consulting,
support and security firm that seeks to “enable those abandoned by the international
community to take action in defense of themselves and their people.”
In
2013, VanDyke released his first documentary, entitled “Not Anymore: A Story of
Revolution” with his own money and the goal of encouraging international
support for Syrian rebels in the ongoing civil war. The film won more than 50
awards and has been shown at educational institutions and events around the
world sponsored by organizations such as Amnesty International. His second
documentary, “Point and Shoot,” which used footage VanDyke shot from 2007-2011,
while motorcycling around the Middle East and North Africa as well as while in
Libya.
His
latest project, Sons of Liberty, relies on donations to provide
training and aid, one reason he is no longer conducting the camp in secret.
VanDyke said his goal is to redefine the security contracting industry
"by challenging the mercenary model that has dominated it throughout
history, by providing services and assistance for free to those in the greatest
need of them." In addition to funding, he seeks skilled ex-military
operators and security contractors who can donate their skills to help train
the Assyrians.
In
its violent quest to take over cities and land, ISIS has intentionally
persecuted religious minorities – kidnapping, murdering, raping, enslaving and
torturing Christians. Just this week, Syrian activists said as many as 200
Christians had been abducted, including women and the elderly, from Assyrian
Christian villages in northeastern Syria. The U.S. State Department condemned
the attacks, and stated that hundreds more are trapped in villages besieged by
ISIS operatives.
For
now, VanDyke – who fought alongside rebels in Syrian more than a year ago,
believes going into Syria is just too dangerous.
“The
problem there is the level of betrayal,” he said. “There is a very high
likelihood for anyone who goes there of being sold to militants by the very
people you’re there to help and protect.”
VanDyke says his group is stepping in to help a dwindling Christian community forgotten by the world.
Training includes hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, and self defense. (Sons of Liberty)
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