yeah, he is like, i think this is something that's underappreciated. even though we talk about all the podcasts and everything else, trump fundamentally is still sort of a creature of the 80s. he still reads the print. new york times, the print, new york post, and time magazine, perhaps gunning for nixon's legacy in other ways as well. >> we shall see. >> i suppose i will say the print new york post is really the way to go. like the new york post would. mike, what do you make of this choice? >> look, i think i think it's a logical choice when you give everyone that that was on that list. just look at the ceremony in notre dame. he was treated as an incumbent president coming and sitting at that, at that ceremony. we've had multiple foreign dignitaries come to mar-a-lago to to meet with trump. this is you know, it's he had a gap of four years. but this is the second term for donald trump. he came back from the ashes, uh, in multiple ways. it makes a whole heck of a lot of sense.

>> all right, guys, thanks very much for being with us today. thanks to all of you at home for joining us as well. i'm kasie hunt. don't go anywhere. cnn news central starts right now. >> missing for months the disturbing new details. >> the mother of suspect luigi mangione told police about her son, pete hegseth facing new questions this morning about past comments. >> the cnn reporting that he has repeatedly criticized policies allowing gay people to serve openly in the military. >> just as hegseth is heading back to the hill today. >> a stunning moment inside a secret syrian prison. cnn's clarissa ward was searching for traces of missing american journalist austin tice. the surprise behind a locked cell door. all unfolding on camera. i'm john berman with kate baldwin and sara sidner. this is cnn news

central some breaking news this morning. >> president biden putting his pardon power to use. just announcing he is commuting the sentences for over 1500 people, including pardons for 39 convicted, 39 people convicted of nonviolent crimes. to put it in context, this move is seen as the largest single day act of clemency in modern history. this big unveil, of course, comes on the heels of biden's full and unconditional pardon of his son, hunter. that got so much attention. this is likely to as well. cnn's arlette saenz has much more for us from the white house this morning. tell us more. arlette well, kate, president biden is using one of the remaining tools available to him in his final days in office to grant clemency to a wide swath of individuals. >> the president saying that this boils down to trying to give people a second chance. now, in all, the president is

commuting the sentences of nearly 1500 individuals, the single largest act of clemency in a single day. to put that in perspective, the previous record was set by president barack obama when he commuted the sentences for 330 individuals in the final days that he was in office. now, the white house says that these individuals who will be impacted were placed on home confinement during the covid 19 pandemic. and the white house says that they have shown a commitment to rehabilitation and reintegration into their communities. on top of that, act of clemency, the president is also pardoning 39 individuals who had non criminal charges that they had faced that are not not violent crimes that they had faced and that includes drug offenses. now, the president in his statement had said, quote, america was built on the promise of possibility and second chances. as president, i

have the great privilege of extending mercy to people who have demonstrated remorse and rehabilitation, restoring opportunity for americans to participate in daily life and contribute to their communities. now it comes as president biden has faced significant pressure to grant more clemency in his closing days in office. there are some who are pushing for him to take several dozen inmates off of federal death row, but this pressure for more acts of clemency really has heightened since president biden had issued that full and unconditional pardon of his son, hunter biden, which really drew fierce backlash from republicans and democrats in the president's own party. after the president for months had said that he would not do so. now, an administration official said that the president's pardoning of his son doesn't really impact his view overall on the clemency power. they say that he's been committed to that as president. he believes it's a way to make the country a bit more. just also in some ways, to try to

deal with some of the wrongdoings of the criminal justice system in the past. and this is unlikely to be president biden's final act of clemency. he did say that he is planning to take more steps in the final weeks that he is in office. >> all right, arlette, thank you so much. a lot to go through here, sarah. >> all right. >> the gun has been linked this morning. that is just one of the huge new revelations against accused killer luigi mangione as he fights for extradition. police say ballistics show the gun found on him matches shell casings that were found at the unitedhealthcare. ceo brian thompson's murder scene. fingerprints. also, they say, matched a water bottle and kind bar that was a wrapper left near by the suspect's lawyer. though pushing back on all of this, saying you have something and getting that admitted into court are two different things. >> we need to see it. we need to see how do they collect it, how much of it matches. you know, like, i don't want to get too technical, but fingerprints, they go by

ridges, different things like that. and then we would have our experts. we would have experts take a look at that. and then we would challenge its admissibility and challenge the accuracy of those results. >> also, some new details about mangione past from his mom. july 1st was reportedly the last time they spoke before. she says she reported him missing in november. with me now is new york times reporter maria kramer. maria, tell us what you are now learning about this as the country is really focused on this case well, yes, his family had been concerned about him for several months now. >> his friends had been wondering why they hadn't heard from him. we know that he had. vacation with his family after suffering a back injury that. a suffering severe back pain that had been a result of first having surgery and then a

surfing incident and slipping on a piece of paper. these were, according to postings he had put on social media, so he had definitely withdrawn and his family was very concerned. his mother had filed a missing report in november. uh, you know, underscoring that, that that level of anxiety and concern that they had. >> where are investigators right now? what are they focusing on well, investigators right now are developing more evidence that they have, obviously, as you said, they've tested they've brought the gun back to new york. >> they brought it to the to the ballistics department to analyze it. and the commissioner, tish, she's the police commissioner in new york, confirmed yesterday that the bullets that, uh, the shell casings that were found at the crime scene matched the weapon that was found in luigi mangione. so they're developing more evidence. they're also looking closely at his writings. the the the 260 word handwritten note, which many are describing as a manifesto. and, um, and that others see as a sort of a claim

of responsibility for what happened, as well as the notebook that was found on him that detailed killing an executive from unitedhealthcare . >> what do you know about his fight to to stop himself being extradited to new york? >> um, this is this is something that his lawyer has said he wants to do. he plans on fighting the extradition. and this is a process that can take many weeks. and, um, and, and we'll have to see how that plays out. but in order to get him into new york, the police have said that, or i should i should say that prosecutors have said that they might have to present a witness, um, who would be able to justify extraditing him from new york as he's facing charges in altoona for the for the guns, for the gun that was found on him. >> excuse me. no worries. maria, do we have any sense of why this extradition fight is happening? >> um, no. no, i don't have

any sense of that. >> all right, maria kramer, thank you so much for giving us the very latest on a case being followed by the entire country, if not parts of the world. appreciate it. john. >> now, i'm legitimately concerned for what the hell is going on because that nobody knows we are literally being invaded by drones and we have no idea who's doing it and where they're coming from. >> this morning, confusion and fear as these huge, mysterious drones fly over sensitive infrastructure in new jersey. new video taken just seconds before a plane crashed into a busy highway and then split in half. and a truly stunning moment. clarissa ward's team in syria searching for any sign of missing american journalist austin tice. what they found was something very different. >> we go in to get a closer look. >> it's still not clear if there is something under the blanket. >> oh it moved. >> is there someone there i thought i saw it move.

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can't beat. start watching at fubo tv.com. >> welcome to times square. that's not on my mind. >> we're. so embarrassing. >> new year's eve live with anderson and andy. live coverage starts at eight on cnn. streaming live on max this morning, a combination of confusion, fear and anger over the waves of drones that apparently keep flying over key locations in new jersey. >> a local mayor said they are, quote, literally being invaded. the department of homeland security says they do not know where the drones are coming from or who is behind them. an explanation that is frustrating new jersey officials. one lawmaker called a dhs. dhs briefing, i should say, a waste of time, adding they know

nothing. another said, just shoot them down already. the drone sightings have been reported for weeks, flying close to a military base and president elect trump's bedminster golf course and here's another one. >> no one seems like no one that's right now there's two. so now i'm seeing things and i'm like, is that a plane or is it a drone? like, what's this? it's another drone. there's a lot in the sky right now. one, two, three. >> all right. cnn's polo sandoval is with us this morning. what on earth is going on here, john? >> this is a story that's very much defined by what we do not know. >> and it's a lack of answers that are really fueling that frustration. right across the river in new jersey. this is where citizens do have and lawmakers and local officials have concerns about what has been reported as multiple

drones that have been spotted over new jersey airspace. these are sightings that go back a couple of weeks all the way back to november 18th in morris county. it's about 43 miles west of new york city. reports some witness reports to authorities indicated that some could be up to six feet in diameter. coast guard reporting as well over water, multiple low flying aircraft near one of their vessels. we reached out to the coast guard for more information here. the fbi really leading this investigation with new jersey state police and the office of homeland security and preparedness. while the coast guard is really going to be trying to address the jurisdictional responses here. federal agencies, though, john, i should mention, have ruled out any connections to local, state or federal governments when it comes to these sightings. i want you to hear directly from a few law enforcement officers in ocean city and ocean city, new jersey, as they describe what they saw when it comes to these reported drones. it was coming in our direction. it spun around 180 degrees, went back out the other way. then it kind of looped around and then took

off past us planes. >> they have, you know, a white tail light coming from them. >> and each each wing has a different color, whether it be red or green, whatever it is, it's different a different. >> i have to say though, after looking over some of these videos, john, there's some resemblance for some of them. in terms of possibly being airplanes, the flight patterns, the navigation lights that are on board. some appear to be to have some landing gear lights as well. so there's some questions about whether or not maybe some actual airplanes could be behind those, but not all. and so i think that that is really what's fueling those questions happening in new jersey. >> and the questions lead to uncertainty, which lead to conspiracy theories. polo. >> plenty of them, including from one new jersey representative, jeff van drew, he said, without offering any evidence that it was a mothership off the eastern coast that was sending these drones, an iranian mothership, an iranian mothership, to be exact. the pentagon, though just yesterday denying those claims, saying that there's no evidence that these are military drones and that there's no foreign entity that's responsible for this.

so i think the more questions get raised, the more we may potentially hear from officials. >> we're going to have jeff van drew on a little bit later. we'll ask him where he's getting his information about the iranian mothership. polo sandoval, thank you thanks very much, kate. >> coming up for us, time's person of the year just announced what they're saying about selecting donald trump for a second time and how the president elect is reacting and mark zuckerberg's meta just donated a big sum to donald trump's inaugural fund. two weeks after zuckerberg himself met privately with donald trump at mar-a-lago. can't fool myself. >> it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther never too much new year's day on cnn. >> can the support your brain health? >> mary janet. hey, eddie. >> no. >> fraser. >> frank. frank. fred, how are you? fred? >> support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory, when you need to

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studio. no less. donald trump has long has a long history, steve, of caring very deeply about the time person of the year cover. just look back at all of the reporting. people will remember this. any reaction from donald trump yet this morning we have not seen reaction from donald trump yet, but he is expected to appear at the new york stock exchange and ring the bell this morning and sort of accept this award, which he views it very much as an award. >> it should be noted that this is someone to mark who is the most influential person of the year, for ill or for good. but donald trump has long seen this as sort of a mark of someone's popularity and influence. if you go back to 2011, he was tweeting about the results, suggesting that the results had lost all credibility because he was not included on their list of top 100 people. and then he tweeted in 2015 that he would never win the award. but in 2016, he actually was named time person of the year for the first time. and actually, if you go even further back, he had in his clubs, it was discovered by the washington post the year after that, he

was putting covers that were fake in a lot of his clubs, suggesting that he was time person of the year. in 2009. but here we are now in 2024, and donald trump joins a long list of presidents who have been named time person of the year for the second time, including presidents obama, george w bush and bill clinton. >> we're going to have one of the time editors joining us later to talk about the selection and what comes along with it, their views of it and why, and all that jazz. but to some, to some other big news that is coming out this morning about the trump transition. the k file has new reporting about donald trump's pick to be the next defense secretary. pete hegseth, and more comments he has made in the past about military policies. what are you learning? >> there's already been a lot of focus so far on what he has said about women in combat. well, it turns out that he has also been very critical about gay men and women openly serving in the military. in his 2024 book, which he did a very

large media tour around, he said it was sort of a, quote, gateway to liberal ideology and marxist thinking. take a listen to what he had to say in june about gays openly serving now you just have the absurdity of i have two mommies, and i'm so proud to show them that i can wear the uniform, too. >> so it's just like everything else the marxists and the leftists have done. at first it was camouflaged nicely, and now they're just they're just open about it. but it did. >> i mean, it started with the clinton under don't ask, don't tell. >> so t of the original people who pushed for the overhaul of don't ask, don't tell are no longer public about it and regret it because it was really just a costume for a trans agenda pushed into the military, which is full on, by the way, inside the ranks. >> now, these aren't new views for pete hegseth. he has said similar things going back all the way to 2015, and k file was able to uncover some more additional comments he has made as well. >> another headline as well that i was seeing this one about donations. mark

zuckerberg's meta has donated. i think it's about $1 million to donald trump's inaugural fund. what are you hearing about this? >> yeah, what a 180 from the summer because donald trump released this book where he threatened mark zuckerberg with life in prison over the hundreds of millions of dollars mark zuckerberg and his wife made to help support election infrastructure during the 2020 election. while flash forward to now, we see mark zuckerberg's meta donating $1 million to donald trump's inauguration, which was confirmed by a meta spokesperson. and look, this is part of a larger warming between donald trump and silicon valley valley. obviously, there's been this bromance with elon musk, but we also saw mark zuckerberg dying at mar-a-lago earlier, since or in the weeks after trump was elected. so just sort of a similar sort of trajectory for some of these silicon valley types. >> and things change when you're looking at who's going to be in the white house and who could be, you know,

targeting your industry if he so chooses. because we have heard donald trump has made no secret of that in the past. steve, thanks so much for all the reporting. i really appreciate it. sara. >> all right. breaking overnight, a missing american may have been found inside a syrian prison. we're getting new details on the u.s. citizen who has been missing for months. that story is ahead. and amid elevated threats targeting ceos, how companies are beefing up security and working to protect corporate executives and their families. those stories and more coming up. >> can't fool myself. it was the most exciting time in the world. >> his life had extremely joyful moments and some really difficult moments. you only come across an artist like luther vandross once in a lifetime. >> luther. never too much new year's day on cnn i'm kind of needs to be more squiggly. >> perfect. >> so now, do you have a driver's license?

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>> we've got breaking news for you out of syria this morning, where a man identifying himself as a missing man from missouri was found just south of damascus. cnn's salma abdelaziz is joining us now. this isn't austin tice, which everyone in the family has been asking for and searching for and hoping to be found alive. what are we learning about this person who says he's from missouri? >> yes. and let me just start with that again, sarah, because there was a lot of misinformation. there were a lot of rumors online. >> this is not austin tice the search for austin tice, of course, continues, but an american was found in syria. his name is travis timmerman. this is breaking news. so we are waiting to get more information. but what we know about him, this 29 year old from missouri who appeared barefoot, wandering, disoriented in a suburb just south of damascus. now, media outlets have been able to speak to him their social media video

emerging of him. and i just want to play you a short clip of one so that you can get a sense of his state and and hear his voice. >> my name is travis yellow. >> i'm from the one minute, 21 minute. what's your name travis chavez. a country united states, united. >> united states united states. >> now, what we know about him is what he's been able to tell journalists on the ground that he's spoken to, which is that he has been in prison for seven months. he traveled to syria on foot. he told reporters that he was on a spiritual journey, that he considered himself a pilgrim. he says that when he crossed, of course, from lebanon into syria, that's when he was arrested and detained by security forces and taken to a regime prison. he says he was treated relatively well, given food, given water, but that he

heard the sounds of people being tortured in that regime prison. again, he was there for seven months. it was first understood that he was missing earlier this year in hungary. so there was very little understanding as to how he wound up in syria other than what he is telling reporters. u.s. officials have responded, have commented on this, and i do want to read you what one u.s. official told cnn, which is that it is aware of reports of an american found outside of damascus. it is seeking to provide support, but out of a respect for his privacy, we have no further information to provide at this time. so very much a person who is now receiving aid, receiving help on the ground, and we'll let you know more when we know it. sarah. >> well, there are so many questions as to how he got there, why he was there, and, you know, just sort of his state as a whole. and i know as the family is still continuing to search for austin tice, there was a lot of hope that this potentially was him, but at least he is alive and

seemingly well. salma abdelaziz, thank you so much for all that reporting for us this morning. kate. >> so increased security budgets, new and elevated threat level, and ceo is being told to delete their footprints online. the brazen killing of the unitedhealthcare ceo brian thompson, has shaken c-suites across the country. and it is also forcing corporations now and their leaders to reevaluate and beef up how they are approaching security. now, as fears grow of more threats to the executive ranks and also possible copycats. joining us right now is seth krummrich. he's the vice president of client risk management at global guardian, a global security services firm. thank you so much for coming in. your firm provides security for these exact people, for corporate execs, their families and among other things. what kinds of calls have you all been getting since brian thompson's murder? how much has it changed? >> kate? it's increased dramatically if we do 150 to

200 missions a month. we saw 90 calls for support within the first few days after the the killing of mr. thompson. so it's a large uptick and it has not let up since then is it? >> i was thinking back to the i guess it was the intelligence report that cnn obtained earlier this week from new york police that said they believed that thompson's killing was a that was a symbolic takedown. it could inspire others to act violently. and, you know, that is inspiring a lot of these corporations and executives to reevaluate what's safe, really is what secure really looks like. how much do you think that is going to change going forward? how much what does beefing it up mean and look like absolutely. >> there is a significant paradigm shift that's underway. and when we look at, you know, before mr. thompson's killing to where we are afterwards, i agree that

you're not putting the toothpaste back in the tube anymore. and what it looks like is sitting down with our clients and having them understand themselves. they make tough decisions every day, and they will alienate part of their population that's going to disagree with them. so we need them to look at their digital footprint. we need them to understand what they look like. for those that would take umbrage with them. and then we need to be able to put in place informed digital online threat management and have the entire suite of services ready to support them. we want to see what people are saying online, and if we see a red flag, something that we think is going to be activated, we at global guardian will then immediately send armed executive protection agents to the home, to the office. but you have to be able to cover the entire spectrum for our clients, and it starts with them knowing themselves adding this factor to the calculation, this kind of morbid fascination that we have seen in fandom of the man who is charged with and

suspected of killing mr. thompson, that he has received since this killing. >> i mean, he's being lionized and fawned over by at least some people. and you see this specifically and mostly online. how does that change your assessment, your approach or the risk level here it changes it dramatically. >> it really puts extra emphasis on this new environment that we're working in. we did not see this after the atlanta olympic park bombings. we didn't see it after ted kaczynski. but we're seeing this incredibly different environment that our clients are having to work in now. and now it's really getting in and making sure that we have all the bases covered and not just in their home town. for example, at global guardian, we have agents in all 50 states and in over 145 countries so that wherever they travel, we can immediately have somebody come in, reduce the risk and take care of any security situation that might arise, because people that would want to target them are

global. that information they can get on their couch. so we really are working now to make sure that we're making informed decisions with our clients and that they understand their threat profile. >> seth, clearly, the health care industry is one that is in the spotlight and a target. what other industries do you think, um, should be most concerned or should be most reassessing their security approach this is a great question. >> you know, i look at it from, you know, the average person on the street, what do they struggle with every day? on the financial side, you can take credit cards, for example. and people find themselves in a financial fish trap. the fish can swim in, but you can't get out. and once they have that perception that they're trapped, they're going to project their anger or, you know, their frustration onto who they perceive is the reason for their situation. so when i

look across, i think student loans, i think credit cards, i think all of those things that frankly, are the what's being discussed and stressed over at the dinner table every night by families across the united states and really the world. >> when you think about all of the stressors that are discussed around a dinner table these days, that's a lot of industries. that's a lot of threat. seth, thank you so much for coming on. really interesting. really appreciate it. >> thank you so much. >> thank you john. >> new this morning fbi director christopher wray says he will resign next month when president biden leaves the white house. >> in my view, this is the best way to avoid dragging the bureau deeper into the fray while reinforcing the values and principles that are so important in how we do our work. >> so president elect trump celebrated the announcement, calling it, quote, a great day for america. as it will end the weaponization of what has become known as the united states department of injustice.

a reminder that fbi directors are supposed to serve ten year terms and operate outside the world of elected politics, which trump appears to want to change. the move seemingly clears the way for trump's controversial pick kash patel, to take over as the new director of the bureau if he can be confirmed. patel, who has been meeting with senators this week, said he will be ready on day one to fill the post. with us now is andrew mccabe, cnn's senior law enforcement analyst, former fbi deputy director. and andy, you say even though it was clear that christopher wray was not going to be fbi director under trump, you think he should have stuck around to get fired? why? >> yeah, i do think that, john. >> and i'll tell you why. and and i should preface it by saying that i believe christopher wray has been a good and solid director of the fbi, and i think he's doing this for what he believes are the right reasons. i think i assume he believes that by announcing his departure and resigning, he's doing this in a way to kind of minimize turbulence for the organization. unfortunately, i

don't think that's possible at this point in time. and i think there's a much more important principle at stake here. and that is the principle of fbi independence. that principle has been a founding, the founding kind of core of our post hoover, post reformation of the fbi. it's something that congress imposed, not the president congress imposed on the fbi, giving the director a ten year term. and i think that maintaining his position and essentially forcing the new president's hand, forcing donald trump to fire him when he arrives and is inaugurated, is a much more important message. i think it sends a clear would send a clear message to the fbi people that what we do is we stay on our post, we continue fighting the good fight, doing our work the way that americans expect us to fairly, impartially. you work at the at the behest of the president. i understand that

the president right now is joseph biden, and he has not asked christopher wray to leave. so i think there are all sorts of important principles and messages to defend by staying in position and forcing donald trump to fire him. >> why do you think these ten year terms are important for fbi directors? >> they are vitally important, john. so let's remember that our first director, j. edgar hoover, served for 36 years. and during that time, he essentially worked as the political intelligence and retribution leader for every president he served, democrat and republican. they all relied on hoover to do essentially the dirty work that they felt they needed done in order to maintain political power, whether that's initiating investigations against people who were suspected to be homosexuals and and vilified as

potentially being communists, or it was putting bugs into the hotel rooms that martin luther king would stay in when traveling in the civil rights movement to collect his his conversations with associates, illegal surveillance, essentially terrorizing people who presidential administrations wanted silenced or eliminated. so in the post watergate post church committee pike committee era, we exposed these things, congress exposed these things, and the fbi was shifted to a different place in american life. and that is cloaked in independence from the political machinations of the white house. right. expected to make decisions about who to investigate and how to investigate based only on the law and the facts that you could prove. that is the fbi, that america expects and has experienced for the last 50 years. and i think at this critical point in time, we are at the precipice of stepping

away from that standard. i think that's clearly what donald trump has indicated in his many statements about how he expects his fbi director to follow his every direction and to pursue his political enemies. >> yeah, and probably ends these ten year terms, because it is hard to imagine if a democrat is elected next time that elected president or keeping kash patel in the job. if patel is confirmed. andrew mccabe, thank you for being with us. appreciate your time. sara. >> all right. today, senator john fetterman expected to meet with pete hegseth donald trump's pick to run the department of defense. it would be his first meeting with a democrat since he started making his rounds on the hill. and he continues to try and shore up support for his nomination. but several key republican senators are still holding back their support. cnn's lauren fox has the very latest from capitol hill. >> well, it's been yet another critical week for pete hegseth, donald trump's pick to lead the department of defense. he

met with senator susan collins, a critical swing vote from the state of maine, a republican and behind closed doors, we're told that the two of them had a wide ranging meeting in which pete hegseth came off as serious and thorough when they were talking about the department of defense, senator susan collins told reporters after that meeting that she touched on a series of issues. she said that she asked one tough question after another. here's what she said about their meeting. >> i pressed him on both his position on military issues, as well as the allegations against him i. >> obviously always wait until we have an fbi background check and one is underway. in the case of mr. pete hegseth and i wait to see the committee hearing before reaching a final

decision. >> but collins, like several other swing republican votes in the senate right now, withholding whether or not she will ultimately back hegseth. now, we should note that it's not typical for senator collins to announce a minute after a meeting how she's going to be voting, but she says she's going to continue going through this process, that she looks forward to the confirmation hearing moving forward. and obviously, that is going to be yet another critical moment for hegseth. he's behind closed doors, seemingly connecting with a lot of these senators. and so far, so many of them are not coming out against his nomination. but they are reminding him in these sessions that he has to be prepared for what is going to be a grueling, long and under oath testimony when he tries to vie for this job. in a public confirmation hearing on capitol hill for cnn. i'm lauren fox. >> lauren, thank you so much for that coming up. still for us, really unbelievable reporting from our team on the ground in syria. cnn goes inside a secret syrian prison

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this is cnn. >> new this morning, reuters reports that syria's rebel leader is promising to dissolve the security forces of ousted president bashar al-assad, and close syria's infamous prisons. during its half century in power, the assad regime used the prisons to detain, torture and kill tens of thousands of syrians. so cnn's clarissa ward went inside one prison in damascus with a rebel fighter and made a stunning discovery. >> deep in the belly of the regime's air force intelligence headquarters, these are english letters. we are hoping to find traces of austin tice, an american journalist held captive in syria since 2012. it's one of many secret prisons across the city. this specific branch was tasked with surveillance, arrest and killing of all regime critics. >> these are all cleaned out. >> we don't find any hints of ties, but come across something

extraordinary i can't tell, though. >> it might just be a blanket, but it's the only cell that's locked. is he going to shoot it? >> the guard makes us turn the camera off while he shoots the lock off the cell door. mess up. we go in to get a closer look. it's still not clear if there is something under the blanket. oh. it moved. >> is there someone there? >> i thought i saw it move. is someone there or is it just a blanket? >> i don't know. i'm a little upset. i think it's someone. >> hello okay, let's just. >> let's just go yeah. let's go. hey. it's okay, it's okay. >> murphy. murphy. >> john joyce. journalist journalist. >> i'm a civilian. he says i'm a civilian.

>> it's okay, it's okay, it's okay. hamas. jay-z. >> he tells the fighter he is from the city of homs and has been in the cell for three months. >> okay. >> okay. you're okay? >> you're okay. you're okay. mike. you're okay clutches my arm tightly with both hands. >> okay does anyone have any water? water? >> my my my my my my my. okay. it's water. it's water. okay okay. okay. you're okay. are they you're okay. >> you're okay. >> we start to walk him outside. thank god you are safe. don't be afraid. the fighter says you are free. >> he.

>> this is the third prison they brought me to. >> he says the third prison? >> after three months in a windowless cell, he can finally see the sky. >> hello, hello. hello, hello. >> the light, he says. oh, god, there is light. my god, there is light. okay. okay, okay okay. okay can you come here? you're okay. stay with me. stay repeats again and again. okay mike. >> laken riley. >> for three months, i didn't know anything about my family. >> i didn't hear anything about my children li qiang neely the fighter

hands him something to eat. barely lift it to his mouth. >> open but his body can't handle it. >> okay. you're okay. his captors fled during the fall of damascus. leaving him with no food or water. >> that was at least four days ago i'm shaking. >> my face is shaking, he says. the rebel tells him there's no more army, no more prisons, no more checkpoints. are you serious? he says. syria. syria is free, he tells him it's the first time he has heard those words he tells us his name is adel herbel, and that officers from

the much feared mukhabarat intelligence services took him from his home and began interrogating him about his phone. they brought me here to damascus. they asked me about names of terrorists, he says. did they hit you? the fighter asks. yes, yes, he says. >> i did. goodbye. >> as a paramedic arrives, the shock sets in there's nothing. everything's okay. the red crescent is coming to help you. this man assures him you are safe. don't be afraid anymore. everything you are afraid of is gone hamas tens of thousands of syrians have disappeared in assad's prisons up until 15 minutes ago. adel herbel was one of them. he is still petrified. >> al hilal, don't be afraid. >> don't be afraid. the ambulance worker reassures him. every car i got into, they blindfolded me, he says. it is

the end of a very dark chapter for him and for all of syria. but so many ghosts remain. clarissa ward, cnn, damascus. >> our thanks to clarissa and her team for that remarkable coverage. now, cnn cannot verify why that man was questioned by syrian intelligence. however, as you heard there, he says he was being questioned about his phone. >> just an incredible story. incredible reporting by clarissa ward. but also such a moment of humanity in a place where we have seen so much death and so much carnage. >> it really was something to see. >> thank you. john. all right. this morning we're learning the star of the inaugural season of abc's show the golden bachelor has been diagnosed with a form of incurable cancer. in an interview with people magazine, 72 year old jerry turner said he has a type of bone marrow cancer that has no cure. turner did get engaged on the show, but the marriage ended after only three months. turner, telling people that his diagnosis played a role in the

reason for the split. the hawaiian woman, whose family members feared for her safety after she went missing, says hannah kobayashi is safe and wants the public to know that this morning, kobayashi's disappearance launched a frantic search for her. last month, after she never boarded a connecting flight to new york from los angeles. but los angeles police later said she intentionally missed that flight and was actually in contact with some of her family members and active on social media. and just moments before disaster. you got to look at this. a driver's dash cam is capturing these incredible pictures as a small plane begins to drop from the sky in southeastern texas before it crashes. despite slamming into a busy roadway, hitting multiple cars, and then splitting in two. cnn affiliate kvue says everyone involved survived that, but several people have been hospitalized. authorities say the plane lost contact with air traffic