Posted on 12/16/2024 2:15:44 PM PST by SmokingJoe
CNN aired a high-profile report last week in which journalist Clarissa Ward ostensibly discovered a “forgotten prisoner” languishing in a windowless cell in Syria. The man claimed he had been arrested by dictator Bashar Assad three weeks earlier and was not aware the Assad regime had since been overthrown by rebels. On Sunday, an independent news service claimed CNN’s celebrity prisoner was actually a Syrian intelligence agent who tricked the network into giving him positive media coverage.
Ward, who is CNN’s chief international correspondent, found the “prisoner” huddled beneath a blanket when she entered the headquarters of Syrian air force intelligence in Damascus accompanied by a rebel fighter, who dramatically shot the locks off prison doors as they explored the facility.
The seemingly abandoned prisoner they discovered said his name was Adel Ghurbal. He claimed he was arrested three months earlier and left behind in his windowless cell when the intelligence facility was abandoned. He said he had not been given food or water for three days, the time elapsed since the victorious rebels entered Damascus and drove Assad into exile.
Ward dramatically escorted the prisoner to freedom, soothingly repeating “you’re okay, you’re okay.” She would later describe the encounter as “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed” during her twenty-year career as a journalist.
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The network’s social media campaign immediately ran into pushback from alert viewers who said some of the details of the story did not add up.
On Sunday, a Syrian independent news platform called Verify-SY called CNN’s report a hoax, identifying the “prisoner” as a Syrian air force intelligence officer named Salama Mohammad Salama, also known as “Abu Hamza.”
(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...
Is this news? We are now going to make a big deal every time CNN is duped? Don’t expect to do much else.
LOL. This is perfect. CNN is such a group of self-righteous stooges. Double and triple fact-checking!!!!
So dumb they were exploited.
Even with the “brain trust” of Wolf Blitzer, David Axelrod, Anderson Cooper, Dana Bash, Van Jones, Abby Phillip and Jake Tapper?
They had an experiment to link their brains together and attach them to an electrical device. It first lit up a night light, the bulb flickered, flashed and then went out.
RE: a group of self-righteous stooges
Funny and true but please be respectful toward the Three Stooges, greatly revered by many of us here.
#3
Prisoner CNN helped free from Syrian prison was actually notorious Assad regime torturer: report
12/16/2024 8:32:26 AM PST · by Red Badger · 16 replies
NY Post ^ | December 16, 2001 | Patrick Reilly
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4284800/posts
Syrian Prisoner Freed by CNN’s Clarissa Ward May Have Been Intelligence Officer in Hiding
12/15/2024 7:10:20 PM PST · by Roberts · 26 replies
The Wrap ^ | 12/15/24 | Bruce Haring
https://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/4284724/posts
Duping is CNN’s job. It’s about time someone turned the tables on them.
I’m surprised the guy got out alive. It seems like the real prisoners, some whom were probably tortured by this guy, would have exacted retribution when things collapsed.
If the Syrian sources are correct, CNN let themselves be tricked.
Which is normal for CNN.
It sure turned out to be, didn't it.
What an embarrassment.
WELL OP it WORKED. You put their names on the front page.
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