Michael Collins
There's a strange story out there about Syrian President Bashar Assad's assassination and possible death. It has little merit but the sourcing is interesting.

Gateway Pundit reported: BREAKING: Assad Shot By Bodyguard – Hospitalized in Damascus - Posted by Jim Hoft on Sunday, March 24, 2013, 12:22 PM

The sourcing on this leads to a French publication, JSS. Gateway Pundit listed the link as "Translated from JSS News:"

JSS, a French online publication, cites the "Arab Media" as its source on Assad's death. This is when the story falls apart.

"Update: According to Arab media www.eltira.org , Bashar al-Assad would have been seriously wounded by gunfire last night Saturday, March 23 by his bodyguard but Iran is not dead. He is currently hospitalized, between life and death, Shami Hospital in Damascus which the streets were closed.

"Proprietary information (in France): According to reports in the Arab press (and then republished in the Israeli press ) [NEWS1] information that journalists say they have "verified" the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad was killed this morning by one of his bodyguards. An important safety device has been set up at the hospital in Damascus." JSS News, March 24, 2013

Let's look at what JSS calls the "Arab media." The first source was the web site www.eltira.org

A whois search for eltira.org revealed the following: "

Admin Name: Fadi Mansour, Organization: Fadi Mansour, City: tira hamsholash, Country: IL

But maybe the translation from French to English was misleading. Surely, the JSS link to the "Arab press" means media out of an Arab country. Clicking in the link gets us to Alarab.net with an Arabic front page.

Wrong again. A whois search for alarab.net revealed the it is administrative, technical and billing contact is Fayez Eshtiwy of Eksal Village, IL, also located in Israel.

Further searching revealed what IPAddress.com had to say about Alarab.net: "When pulling the information for bab.Alarab.net, we found that the organization tied to" "Israel's leading internet and international telecommunications provider," Bezeq International.

All this brought us back to truth in labeling Israeli media, News. That organization reported the following (Hebrew with Google translation)

"Whois" on third?

We have a right wing blogger in Washington referring us to a French news service specializing in Israeli diplomatic news, JSS, which announces the attack on Assad and then gives a source that implies it's the "Arab media" - eltira.org. But it turns out the organization is registered in Israel. The unambiguous "Arab news" source, Al Arab, has similar problems regarding Arab authenticity. While the page is written in Arabic, the administrative contact is in Israel with the Alarab.net web site associated with a top Israel internet company.

Here's how the story is reported in the Israeli media after all that massaging by Israeli focused or owned publications, we get the official story in the Israeli media (or maybe that's fringe media).

Assad. Is assassinated by a bodyguard? [Photo: AP]

"Arab media reported the assassination of Syrian President Bashar Assad. On - reportedly not yet been validated and have not yet received echo Western media, Assad [was] fired [on by]one of his bodyguards.

"This is an Iranian officer named Mehdi Jacoby, who was attached to Assad on - by allies of the Syrian president in Tehran.

"Various reports published that Assad al-Shami was rushed to the hospital and in serious condition. Also reported the big fuss that has developed around the hospital and that all roads leading to the hospital were blocked - by the Syrian army. Also reported large military forces are in the hospital." News1 (Translated from Hebrew)

What does he Arab media say?

Syran Arab News Agency? Al Akahbar - English? Al Jazeera-English? Egypt Independent?

A whole lof of nothing. If you hear anything, let us know.

END

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The New York Daily News is taking this seriously: Unconfirmed reports of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s shooting highlight chaos in country