CNN backs off Syria "rescue" story

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Freed prisoner who said he was a victim of the Assad regime was an intelligence officer, locals say​

CNN —
A man who was filmed by CNN being released by rebels from a Damascus jail was a former intelligence officer with the deposed Syrian regime, according to local residents, and not an ordinary citizen who had been imprisoned, as he had claimed.

CNN initially found the man while pursuing leads on the missing US journalist Austin Tice. In a video report, chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward and her team, accompanied by a rebel guard, came across a cell in a Damascus jail that was padlocked from the outside. The guard blew off the lock with a gun, and the man was found alone inside the cell, under a blanket.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/16/middleeast/syria-assad-prisoner-homs-intl-latam/index.html

 

[DrLeftover]

CNN is acknowledging that a gripping story it aired last week depicting a Syrian man being let free from a Damascus prison after the fall of dictator Bashar Assad's regime was not what it seemed.

The network said that it has since found out that the man shown in correspondent Clarissa Ward's report, which initially aired on Dec. 11, apparently gave a false identity.

“This moment captures the complexity of the situation in Syria,” CNN's Jake Tapper said on Tuesday.

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CNN says its report on a freed Syrian prisoner is not what it initially believed