ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the authors describe the events leading to the 2013 attack and what has happened since to the best of their knowledge. They discuss the importance of social media in covering these events and broaden the scope to issues of planning humanitarian support and future implications. The civil war in Syria is being intensely covered in almost “real time” through social media networks. The schedule for eliminating the Syrian program was considerably accelerated as compared with other chemical disposal plans given international concerns about both the Syrian government’s use of chemical weapons and the potential security risk of losing the said chemical weapons to non-state actors in Syria. A former Syrian scientist indicated that the regime was purposefully using sarin nerve agent in small quantities to stop rebels’ progress around the capital and to incapacitate those fighting forces rather than to cause mass casualties.
