Colum Lynch's guest appearances

Colum Lynch

TrumpWatch with Jesse Lent

Devex

Jonah Walters

Donald Trump

David Smith

Sarah McBride

Kurt Andersen

Jay Michaelson

John Kelly

Jeff Sessions

Mike Pompeo

Mark Walsh

Mike Pence

Lenny Bruce

David Cay Johnston

Harry Edwards

James Comey

OwlTail

Elias Groll

Last year, when President Trump authorized the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for its role in an April 4, 2017 sarin attack, both British and French government agencies reportedly had soil samples confirming that chemical weapons had been used, violating international law. Yet, when US forces launched coordinated airstrikes with the UK and France on Friday to take out three facilities in Syria believed to be researching, developing and storing chemical weapons, the proof was a lot less solid. As Colum Lynch and Elias Groll report in their April 17 article for Foreign Policy “How Social Media Built the Case for Trump’s Strike on Syria,” in the absence of hard evidence gathered from the field as Syrian and Russian armed forces blocked access to the Damascus suburb of Douma where the alleged chemical attack took place, coalition forces instead relied on reporting from official news outlets and citizen journalists on social media. In this week’s “TrumpWatch” on WBAI, host Jesse Lent talks to Colum and Elias about the implications of this major shift in the way chemical weapons attacks are confirmed and examines what it means for the ongoing bloody conflict in Syria and the world at large.

Ep 66 (4/18/18) Did social media justify airstrikes in Syria? Guests: Colum Lynch, Elias Groll

In 2017, when President Trump authorized the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for its alleged role in a sarin gas attack both British and French government agencies reportedly had soil samples confirming that chemical weapons had been used, violating international law. Yet, when US forces launched coordinated airstrikes with the UK and France on Friday to take out three facilities in Syria believed to be researching, developing and  storing chemical weapons, the proof was a lot less solid. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Colum Lynch and Elias Groll, co-authors of the Foreign Policy article “How Social Media Built the Case for Trump’s Strike on Syria,” examine the evidence used to justify this new round of air attacks by the US and its allies.

<p>In 2017, when President Trump authorized the firing of 59 Tomahawk missiles at a Syrian air base in retaliation for its alleged role in a sarin gas attack both British and French government agencies reportedly had soil samples confirming that chemical weapons had been used, violating international law. Yet, when US forces launched coordinated airstrikes with the UK and France on Friday to take out three facilities in Syria believed to be researching, developing and  storing chemical weapons, the proof was a lot less solid. On this week’s TrumpWatch, Colum Lynch and Elias Groll, co-authors of the Foreign Policy article “How Social Media Built the Case for Trump’s Strike on Syria,” examine the evidence used to justify this new round of air attacks by the US and its allies.</p>

Did the images on social media justify airstrikes in Syria? (Colum Lynch, Elias Groll)