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This fact brief was originally published as an experiment to test the concepts behind fact briefs.

Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of useful information in fact briefs like this one, not all of them reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

FACT BRIEF

Did Samantha Power back President Obama’s Syria policy?

Saturday, January 16, 2021

By Lauralei Singsank

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Samantha Power, who served on the Obama administration’s National Security Council and then as U.N. Ambassador, was among officials who disagreed with President Obama's refusal to intervene in Syria's civil war during his time in office.

Power had written a book advocating for aggressive U.S. actions against genocide. The Syrian conflict brought great loss of life, but it was not the kind of ethnic slaughter her book had focused on. In her 2019 memoir, she wrote that “we will never know what would have happened had Obama taken a different path,” but acknowledges that the risks of escalation would have been significant.

“The idealist has become wise to the ways of Washington and crafted her Syria story in a way reflecting that wisdom,” a Bard College scholar said of the book. Power has been nominated by President-elect Biden to run the U.S. Agency for International Development.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Atlantic Council: Samantha Power's uneasy legacy on Syria

New Yorker: The moral logic of humanitarian intervention

Channel 4 News (UK): interview with Power—on disagreeing with Obama (Nov. 6, 2019)

Biden-Harris Transition: Samantha Power

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Gigafact

Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.

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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.