How US mercenary VanDyke, arrested by NIA, fought wars for ‘Bellingcat’ founder: Read how the CIA and MI6 front has been masquerading as ‘OSINT handle’

The distinction between an independent journalist, a ‘freedom fighter,’ and a Western intelligence asset is not only hazy but deliberately designed to be indistinguishable in the murky world of international espionage. The mask slipped on March 13, 2026. In three airports Kolkata, Lucknow, and Delhi, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) of India carried out a significant counterterrorism operation that resulted in the arrest of six Ukrainian individuals and an American person called Matthew Aaron VanDyke. Their alleged crime? They were using tourist visas to enter India in order to smuggle European drones and train ethnic insurgency groups in Myanmar across the porous borders of Mizoram.

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From the 2011 Libyan civil war against Muammar Gaddafi to the battlefields of Syria and Ukraine, VanDyke is a self-identified documentary filmmaker who, to the uninformed eye, appears to be an eccentric thrill seeker. However, a much darker picture becomes apparent when you follow the breadcrumbs of his two-decade career. VanDyke’s career path is tightly linked to the highest levels of Western intelligence collection, particularly due to his established relationship with Eliot Higgins, the founder of Bellingcat, a reportedly open-source intelligence outlet. Opindia uncovers a historical cover-up by following the thread of VanDyke’s recent arrest in India, revealing Bellingcat as a sophisticated front for the CIA and MI6, as the evidence clearly indicates.

The 2013 Syrian civil war

We need to consider the Syrian Civil War in order to comprehend the design of this intelligence system. The use of chemical weapons in Syria dominated the world’s narrative in 2013. The Western consensus, strongly influenced by mainstream media, placed the responsibility completely on Bashar al-Assad’s regime, paving the stage for international military involvement.

Enter Eliot Higgins, who eventually founded Bellingcat in 2014 while establishing his reputation as an armchair analyst under the pseudonym ‘Brown Moses.’ Higgins presented himself as an impartial, neutral open-source data tracker. However, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s and Cryptome-Wikileaks’ released correspondence presents a quite different image of Higgins’ journalistic integrity.

Private communication between Higgins and Matthew VanDyke was exposed in a crucial press release from the Russian foreign ministry and supported by further archival Cryptome-Wikileaks. Under the cover of his military contracting company, Sons of Liberty International (SOLI), VanDyke was actively working with Syrian rebel groups on the ground at the time. According to the letter, VanDyke told Higgins directly that chemical weapons were in the hands of Syrian rebel groups, not simply the Assad regime. VanDyke’s admission was explosive since he was an operator who was closely associated with these anti Assad forces. The clear cut, binary narrative that Washington and London were attempting to present to the public was squarely at odds with the factual intelligence.

What did Eliot Higgins do with this massive revelation? He buried it.

Rather than researching the rebels’ chemical stockpiles, Bellingcat deliberately withheld this critical information. Rather, the outlet consistently released news accusing the Syrian government of chemical attacks, giving the CIA and MI6 the precise ‘open-source’ rationale they required to demand regime change. In order to preserve a pro-Western narrative, Higgins purposefully concealed VanDyke’s intelligence concerning terrorists using chemical weapons.

Bellingcat: The intelligence cut-out masquerading as independent media

Bellingcat presents itself as an ethical, independent group of researchers motivated by a passion of open-source investigation. The organisation fiercely disputes receiving direct funding from national governments, but it skillfully takes advantage of a loophole, they are more than willing to take money from private foundations or international organizations that are funded by state governments.

In actuality, they are publicly adored by Western intelligence services. Former CIA deputy chief of operations Marc Polymeropolous gushed about the agency and acknowledged that ‘we love this’ in a 2020 Foreign Policy story. Former CIA Chief of Station Daniel Hoffman effectively acknowledged that Bellingcat is a handy cutout for the agency. Because Bellingcat is publicly accessible, the US intelligence establishment may utilize their research to launder information and arm twist foreign governments without having to declassify their own state secrets.

The dark money trail

The independent facade completely disintegrates if you follow the money. Government contractors and well-known regime change fronts provide substantial financial support for Bellingcat’s operations:

• The Zinc Network: This covert intelligence outlet, which carries out information warfare activities on behalf of the US State Department, USAID, and UK government ministries, gave Bellingcat €160,000.
• Chemonics: This Washington-based contractor, known for carrying out espionage and destabilisation operations backed by the US government, gave them €5,000.
• Adam Smith International: This company, which receives hundreds of millions from the UK government for dubious overseas operations, gave Bellingcat more than $65,000.
• Regime Change Financiers: George Soros’s Open Society Foundation and the CIA-affiliated National Endowment for Democracy (NED) actively support them.

Even its supporters secretly question its legitimacy, despite its prominence as a media darling. Bellingcat is ‘somewhat discredited,’ according to a leaked UK Foreign Office-commissioned analysis, which also noted that the group is ‘willing to produce reports for anyone willing to pay’ and actually publishes false information. 

In addition to recruiting ex-spies, Bellingcat’s drive for regime change has taken quite disturbing turns. Eliot Higgins actively promoted an account called ‘Shami Witness’ as a Syria expert while promoting US intelligence narratives in Syria. Later, Shami Witness was exposed as Mehdi Masroor Biswas, a known ISIS recruiter, and found guilty under Indian anti-terror laws.

Bellingcat: CIA/MI6 Laundromat

The Higgins-VanDyke cover up is unmistakable evidence of a functional operational relationship between desk-bound narrative managers and boots on the ground mercenaries, not just a mistake in journalistic judgment. When intelligence services such as the CIA or MI6 are unable to share sensitive information without exposing their sources, or when they need to manufacture approval for a geopolitical maneuver, a laundering mechanism is required.

This is precisely what Bellingcat does. The outlet can somehow get conclusions that consistently support NATO’s strategic goals by employing ‘open source’ intelligence. Funding for Bellingcat often comes from organisations closely associated with Western statecraft, particularly those recognised as the overt arms of Western intelligence.

Eliot Higgins and Matthew VanDyke are two sides of the same intelligence coin. VanDyke operates in conflict areas with complete impunity as a plausible deniability asset. He freely acknowledges that he advanced to the final levels of CIA recruitment before reportedly failing a polygraph. He coordinates the tangible, on-the-ground realities, such as providing drones, funding operations, and arming rebels. In the meantime, Higgins and Bellingcat oversee the informational battlefield, making sure that any unpleasant facts that assets like VanDyke uncover are cleaned up, repressed, or misrepresented in order to further Western objectives.

The proxy war

VanDyke did not come to India for a spiritual retreat. The NIA claims that he and his six Ukrainian aides were training ethnic rebel groups in Myanmar by transporting cutting-edge European drone technology through Mizoram. These rebel groups have strong ties to anti-India groups that are active in the unstable Northeast.

Why would an American mercenary who is closely associated with Ukrainian foreign fighter networks arrive out of nowhere in India’s backyard? The proxy war approach holds the key to the answer. Western intelligence can cause strategic difficulties for emerging India by inciting instability in Myanmar and the northeastern area of India, thereby guaranteeing the region’s reliance on Western intervention.

Conclusion

Matthew VanDyke’s arrest reflects a turning point. It has exposed a complex ecology in which propagandists masquerading as journalists write history and mercenaries pretending to be filmmakers organise mayhem. The key to understanding this link is still the 2013 Cryptome leak. Eliot Higgins made a calculated move to stifle VanDyke’s information regarding chemical weapons used by rebels. The Anglo-American intelligence organisation frequently uses Bellingcat as its public relations branch. As VanDyke sits in an Indian questioning chamber, the illusion of the self-sufficient Western crusader is ultimately demolished. India has taken a firm stance, refusing to serve as a playground for foreign intelligence operatives.

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