Doc7505
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- Feb 16, 2016
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CNN May Have Been Duped By Fake ‘Syrian Prisoner’
Report: CNN May Have Been Duped By Fake ‘Syrian Prisoner’
CNN's viral video sensation has turned into an embarrassment as a rescued "Syrian prisoner" is reportedly an intelligence agent from Assad's regime.
www.breitbart.com
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.
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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.”
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The independent platform also said CNN overlooked some very obvious clues that Salama was not on the level, such as his remarkably robust appearance for a man who supposedly went three days without food or water, and the way he occasionally forgot to act weak and terrified while talking with Ward and her camera crew.
“As Syrians first and journalists second, we must ask: Did CNN deliberately mislead its audience to rehabilitate Abu Hamza’s image, or did it fall victim to misinformation? And if the latter, what led the network to this mistake, especially when Syrians have succeeded in exposing crimes and violations that the world at large has failed to document over decades?” Verify-Sy asked.
CNN quickly went into damage-control mode as its big viral scoop turned into a gigantic embarrassment. On Sunday, CNN said it has “subsequently been investigating his background and are aware that he may have given a false identity.”
“No one other than the CNN team was aware of our plans to visit the prison building featured in our report that day. The events transpired as they appear in our film,” CNN said in a statement on the controversy.
Commentary:
The Neo-Marxist left preys on ignorance. It’s been working since the Obama days of Trayvon Martin, George Floyd and after with Jussie Smollett and Bubba Smith. They escalated their BS over the years and it kept working. Now it can finally be called out more without being banned form certain Media sites...so hopefully there’s some course correction happening...It was mostly a peaceful rescue…
One could claim that Clarissa Ward has become another Peter Arnett
