In her video report from Wednesday, CNN's Clarissa Ward was seen helping a prisoner escape from a jail in Damascus, Syria. At the time, he claimed he was an ordinary local citizen grappling with the brutal regime of Bashar al-Assad.
However, it has since been confirmed that the man was actually Salama Mohammad Salama, a.k.a. Abu Hamza, a former intelligence officer working with Assad's deposed regime, notorious for being an extortionist. Ward took to X to confirm the news, sending the internet into a frenzy.
Users have been weighing in with sarcasm, pointed remarks, and memes in abundance, and here's what one user said, for example:
"One of the best trolls of all time."
With over 4,000 comments on her post, scores more weighed in:
"That doesn’t sound like good journalism at all, Clarissa. You don’t vet your stories before running them?" one user asked.
"Thank you for your taking your time investigating this and your journalistic professionalism. People will try to get their “hits” in over this but you did nothing wrong here," another consoled.
"No apology? CNN is so not worth watching. Not even the guts to openly admit you decieved the public?" someone else demanded.
"lmao his identity wasnt the problem with your "reporting" it's that it was obviously staged," a fourth person opined.
The comments kept pouring in, with Clarissa Ward getting the short end of the stick:
"Yeah half the tweet is a joke but I do think she was also unlucky and not actually planning something nefarious like the most outlandish theories you saw going around. I think in future to avoid this they shouldn’t try and capture these things live for the drama effect," someone stated.
"Thank you for correcting, Clarissa, and for offering the extra essential context that was needed here to educate us of the real story behind this man. You were simply doing your job and couldn’t have possibly known. Keep up the great work!" another cheered on.
"At least you have the guts to admit when wrong. Kudos to you Clarissa. The man tricked you and your team," another echoed. Staging the whole thing. And even if what she says here is the new truth how do they not realize he has trimmed nails and other details that would lead one to realize this is not a long time prisoner," someone else probed.
CNN get duped by a former intelligence officer
Per CNN, at the time of reporting, Clarissa Ward and her crew were tailing leads on a missing US journalist named Austin Tice when they happened upon a locked Damascus jail cell. They broke in, only to discover a man hiding under the blanket. When asked about his identity, the man, visibly confused, claimed he was Adel Ghurbal from Homs, a city in Syria.
He claimed he had been arrested three months ago and had since had stints in three different jails. He also appeared to be unaware of the downfall of the Assad regime. Per Deadline, Red Crescent, a humanitarian group, swooped in and took the man away. They later revealed that he had been dropped off at one of his relatives' homes.
Verify-Sy looked into the man's identity, only to uncover that he was not who he claimed to be but was instead part of the erstwhile Syrian Intelligence. Per Verify-Sy:
"According to locals, his recent incarceration—lasting less than a month—was due to a dispute over profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer. This led to his detention in one of Damascus’s cells, as per neighborhood sources.”
The site also attached photos of the man in his military uniform. In CNN's latest report about the same, the outlet stated they also received a photo of the man on duty, and their facial recognition software confirmed that he was the same man they met in the prison cell. However, the outlet did not post the photo to keep the source's identity safe.
Per the outlet, several sources have revealed that the man was notorious for championing the Air Force Intelligence Directorate’s checkpoints in the area, and they also claimed he was quick to resort to extortion and harassment.
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At the time of writing, it remains unclear how the man landed in the prison cell, and the outlet claims to be unable to get in touch with him again. However, Verify-Sy has since reported that the man was only in jail for less than a month, stemming from a quarrel over “profit-sharing from extorted funds with a higher-ranking officer.” However, CNN reported that this information is yet to be confirmed.
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