By Debbie Schlussel

He never thought it was noble to join the U.S. Armed Forces and fight on the side of his fellow Americans. But for the Libyan rebel Muslims allied with Al-Qaeda, well, Matthew VanDyke found that infinitely more noble and worthy. And even after six months in a Libyan prison, he’s still working for these scumbags, who brutally torture their own.  Hey, why fight to protect American freedom, when you can fight to enslave a country to yet another Islamic government allied with the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qaeda?

As you read this jerk’s story, you know he’s just like the “American” hikers in Iran–American by accident of birth, leftist moron and Islamo-panderer by choice. “Jottings?” Sounds like he’d be right at home with the Occupy Wall Street crowd. He’s upset at how he was treated in the Libyan jail. Um, what did you expect? Paradise? It’s Libya, dude. And your preferred Libyans (the “rebels”) ain’t no better–and are actually markedly worse–than the previous Libyans in power.

As described by those who know him, Matthew VanDyke comes off as footloose and maybe a little feckless. He has worked sporadically, sometimes getting freelance writing or teaching gigs but more often traveling to the Middle East for months at a time with plans to do something, someday, with his jottings and photography.

Leaving Baltimore for Libya last February was entirely in keeping with his wanderings. VanDyke wanted to support friends he’d made on a previous trip. They had gotten caught up in the uprising against the country’s longtime strongman, Moammar Gadhafi, and the 32-year-old took his camera and netbook computer to capture the unfolding drama.

VanDyke, though, got too close to the action — in March he was captured by Gadhafi forces and imprisoned for nearly six months. After his surprise release when rebels forced open the prison in Tripoli, VanDyke decided to take up arms himself. In recent news photos transmitted worldwide from Libyan battlegrounds, VanDyke smiles and stands shoulder-to-shoulder with rebel fighters.

That shift, from journalist to fighter, has caused no small amount of consternation among human rights workers, governmental agencies and family members who had advocated and tried to locate him during the months in which he vanished into the Libyan prison system.

“We all worked hard to try and locate him and get him home safe for all those months, and it is a bit tragic to now see him try and join the fight as a rebel,” Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director for Human Rights Watch, said in an email.

The international rights group was among those who rallied to VanDyke’s cause and were heartened when he was freed with others when rebels took control of the capital in August. But they are not the only ones concerned about his decision not to return to Baltimore but to instead fight with the rebels — a decision that leaves him vulnerable should he fall into trouble in the future. . . .

He cuts an almost cinematic figure, in camouflage fatigues and a burgeoning Che Guevara-like beard, with an assault rifle strapped across his chest, riding in a machine gun-mounted Jeep in a Libyan desert. . . .

After snubbing the government and humanitarian officials who had arrayed to help extract him from Libya, he’s largely on his own now.

Um, why did government and humanitarian officials waste resources helping this Islamo-pandering “American” loser in the first place?

Because that’s what they do. But innocent civilian Western victims of Islamic terrorism, well no-one cares about them. We only help the America-hating types who go hiking in Iran while they live in Syria and who travel to Libya to help Al-Qaeda supporters.