THIS IS CNN: When the Weeping Torture Victim You Save…

With Syria suddenly accessible, CNN’s Clarissa Ward, who has been something of a lightning rod herself, hot-footed it back into the country she had reamed the Obama administration for abandoning to the younger Assad.

After hooting it up in the streets, Ward somehow made her way over to a ‘secret facility’ in Bashar al-Assad’s infamous prison system. She and her crew were on the hunt to see if they could find traces of Austin Tice, the young American kidnapped some 12 years ago and not heard from since, although his family had recently gotten word he was alive.

While Ward didn’t find Tice during her quest, what she did find thrilled her to no end.

‘Are you serious?’: He spent months in a Syrian prison. CNN’s camera caught the moment he’s freed

While searching a secretive prison in the belly of the Assad regime’s legacy of torture for American journalist Austin Tice, CNN’s Clarissa Ward made a startling discovery when a rebel fighter uncovered a hidden prisoner still unaware of Assad’s ouster.

It was almost, like, ‘too good to be true’ television.

At the moment, it’s looking very much like it’s “too good to be true television.”

Whew — good thing CNN doesn’t have a reputation of previous dodgy reporting in the Middle East.