CNN’s Clarissa Ward revealed Tuesday night that her recent story about the release of Syrian prisoners was actually about the Bashar al-Assad regime’s torturers, and how missteps from the news media show how Syrians’ He admitted that they talked for nearly four minutes about how he highlighted “complexity.” war.

Ward and her team at the outlet published A Dec. 11 video purportedly shows the group entering a prison “deep within the regime’s air intelligence headquarters” and finding a lone prisoner stranded inside a concrete building. Ta. However, after the video was released, a Syrian fact-checking organization called Verify-Sy refuted the network’s claim that the prisoner found was a “rebel fighter” named “Adel Gulbal.”

Tapper, host of “The Lead with Jake Tapper,” said he “kept up” on the story even after the station discovered that Ward had been given a false identity, and told international correspondents what he would do further. I asked him if he knew any information.

“Well, Jake, obviously from the moment we witnessed this amazing moment, we’ve been trying to dig up more information about this prisoner,” Ward began. “We couldn’t find anything about the name he gave, but a few days after our report aired, CNN started talking to people in the city of Homs, and they told us He told me that his real name is actually Salama Mohamed Salama.”He is reportedly a lieutenant in the Air Force Intelligence Directorate. He is also known as Abu Hamza. ”

“He was known for running an air force intelligence checkpoint in the city of Homs. He is accused of extorting and harassing people. We are currently using Salama’s photo to We were able to corroborate the information given to us by the residents of Bashar al-Assad, and it is clear that he was far from the ordinary man he called himself, and was a member of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime. . He’s in prison himself,” Ward said.

Ward went on to explain why the media had not yet learned why the man had been arrested, adding that Verify Sai had reported that the man had been involved in an argument “with a senior executive over the distribution of the proceeds of the stolen funds.” He cited what he claimed had happened. Tapper then asked journalists how the article highlighted “the complexities surrounding prisons and detention centers in Syria.” (Related: ‘A horribly complicated situation’: President Trump will face another foreign policy powder keg on day one)

“I mean, listen, Jake, this certainly illustrates the complexity around prisons and detention centers in Syria. This regime has collapsed with lightning speed. Thousands of prisoners have been released, but the reality is “We know very little about who was being held and what charges they were being held in and where all of these people are now,” Ward said. “When the guard, who was one of the rebels, opens the cell door, you can see the shock on his face. He literally says to the man, ‘I can’t believe you’ve been there for days. “I did,” he said. Assad used these prisons as a weapon to maintain power and industrial-scale detention of his opponents. ”

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“But this clearly shows that it was not only dissidents who were imprisoned, and it was not only dissidents who rebelled against the regime. Also, it is important to note that we “I visited three separate detention facilities during my time in Damascus,” Ward said.

Ward went on to explain how she and her team discovered a “huge amount of documents” that had “little protection” and had been destroyed or burned by the regime of former Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. I explained. In response, Tapper asked Ward to discuss how the article “speaks to the challenges of reporting in combat zones and chaotic situations” following criticism of the network. .

“I think we need to be humble about the challenges. It’s a chaotic atmosphere. There’s a tremendous amount of flux,” Ward said. “It’s extremely difficult to see real-time information on the ground, which means rescue workers at the infamous Sednaya Prison are desperately trying to find the underground red section of the prison that ultimately never even existed. We spend days hammering away and days searching for it, and the story takes an unexpected turn.”

“We continue to report without fear or favor, but it’s very difficult in this environment and I think we need to be transparent about that,” Ward said.

Reports that al-Assad had fled the country to Russia surfaced on December 8, after rebels and the Syrian army announced the end of the 24-year-old regime. Since the former president’s ouster, the country has begun to return to normalcy, with banks and shops in the capital Damascus reopening on December 10. According to Go to CBS News.

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