CNN confirmed Monday evening that it was misled by a man who was freed from a Syrian prison last week while the network’s cameras were rolling.
During a package filmed on Wednesday, CNN viewers watched as chief foreign correspondent Clarissa Ward – along with a security guard who is a member of the rebel forces that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s government – discovered a man who had been locked away in a prison cell, seemingly forgotten. The man, hidden under a blanket, was given water, told he was free to go and was walked out of the prison gripping Ward’s arm.
The man identified himself during the segment as “a civilian” named Adel Ghurbal, who was taken by the intelligence service from his home three months ago and interrogated. He seemed to be overwhelmed with emotion when told that Assad’s government had fallen.
But the network reported on Monday evening that the man’s name is actually Salama Mohammad Salama and that he served as a lieutenant in the Assad regime’s Air Force Intelligence Directorate. (The Washington Post has not verified the man’s identity.)
CNN was given a photograph of the man and confirmed his identity with facial recognition software, the network reported.
While the man appears to have been imprisoned, “it’s unclear how or why Salama ended up in the Damascus jail, and CNN has not been able to reestablish contact with him,” the network said.
The CNN team discovered the man while scouring the prison for Austin Tice, the American journalist who was abducted while reporting in Syria in August 2012.
The segment had circulated on social media and was seen as a window into the Syrian people’s newfound grasp of freedom after decades of autocratic rule.
But some questioned the authenticity of the encounter, noting the man’s appearance and his muted reaction upon seeing the sun for the first time in months. CNN has maintained confidence in Ward’s reporting but acknowledged in a statement earlier Monday that it was investigating whether the man had misled the network about his identity. (A disclaimer was also placed at the end of the video on CNN’s website.)
A Syrian fact-checking organization first suggested Sunday that the man was Salama.
A CNN spokesperson said that no one else was aware that the network’s journalists would be visiting the prison on that day. The spokesperson also said that it was the guard’s decision to free the man, not one made by the network’s crew.
In the package, representatives from humanitarian group Syrian Arab Red Crescent are shown assisting the seemingly shaken man outside the prison. The organization posted on X on Dec. 13 that the man was discovered “without identification” and was “reunited with a relative” in the capital city of Damascus. The Post has tried to contact the organization to learn more about the man’s discovery.
In the wake of questions about the package, some journalists took to X to offer their support for Ward. Ward is an accomplished foreign correspondent and often the face of CNN’s coverage in conflicts around the world.
“The attacks against @clarissaward are unfounded and ridiculous,” wrote Fox News chief foreign correspondent Trey Yingst. “She is an honest and professional journalist.”