(Article changed on March 25, 2013 at 02:37)
by Wiki Commons
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. (Image)
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.
by Screen shot - Michael Collins
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?
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