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