CNN appears to have been duped by a former notorious member of Bashar al-Assad’s fallen regime.
CNN chief international journalist Clarissa Ward called it “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed,” when she and her film crew “freed” the man from a prison cell.
The CNN story showed Ward visiting a former Syrian Air Force intelligence headquarters in Damascus when she and her crew came upon a man wrapped in a blanket inside a locked, windowless cell.
It was the only cell in the prison for political prisoners at the facility that was locked and occupied. The man, who identified himself as Adel Ghurbal, said he had been in the cell for three months.
However, he was wearing clean clothes and was well-groomed.
BREAKING: Syrian prisoner “freed” by CNN last week is Salama Mohammad Salama, notorious Assad regime torturer pic.twitter.com/ZHpNzfiIYQ
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) December 16, 2024
The “independent and unbiased” Syrian fact-checker site Verify-Sy refuted the man’s account reporting Ghurbal is actually Salama Mohammad Salama.
“Salama, known as ‘Abu Hamza,’ is a first lieutenant in Syrian Air Force Intelligence, notorious for his activities in Homs. Residents of the Al-Bayyada neighborhood identified him as frequently stationed at a checkpoint in the area’s western entrance, infamous for its abuses,” Verify-Sy said.
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“Despite his seemingly innocent and composed demeanor in the CNN report, Salama has a grim history. He participated in military operations on several fronts in Homs in 2014, killed civilians, and was responsible for detaining and torturing numerous young men in the city without cause or on fabricated charges,” the fact checker added.
“Many were targeted simply for refusing to pay bribes, rejecting cooperation, or even for arbitrary reasons like their appearance. These details were corroborated by families of victims and former detainees who spoke with Verify-Sy.”
According to the report, locals said he had been incarcerated less than a month ago for a dispute with a higher-ranking officer over profit-sharing of extorted funds.
CNN seemingly conceded it may have had the wool pulled over its eyes by the man saying in a statement to the New York Post, “We have subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity.”
“We are continuing our reporting into this and the wider story,” the network added.
There were certainly multiple red flags Ward and her producers at CNN should have picked up on: the only locked and occupied cell, the man’s appearance and demeanor, etc.
Ward said they had been in search for missing American journalist and Marine Corps veteran Austin Tice, who disappeared in 2012 while reporting on the Syrian civil war.
The man from our report, reunited with a family member. https://t.co/jQ8om9APzM
— Clarissa Ward (@clarissaward) December 14, 2024
Obviously, finding him would be a major story, but barring that, CNN apparently was all too willing to grab onto another happy story, which appears to be based on a lie.
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