News of the assassination of one of Hezbollah’s top leaders, Imad Mughniyeh, was lauded by many as good news in the continuing fight against terrorism. But CNN correspondent Jim Clancy says he can’t help but remain a little skeptical about the terrorist’s demise:

Imad Mughniyeh was a master of deception. He was also Hezbollah’s chief of security and its strategist. His alleged role in bombings and kidnappings earned him a place on the “Most Wanted Terrorists” list of the United States.

He reportedly underwent plastic surgery in Iran to change his appearance. Mughniyeh was often reported to be in Iran or Syria or on a plane between those two countries. Tehran and Damascus always denied any knowledge.

So forgive me if I greet the news of his demise with considerable skepticism. His life’s work was deception and it would pain me not to take that into account when reporting his death.

Clancy was on scene for the 1985 Beirut hostage crisis–which Mughniyeh is thought to have planned–and remembers the “remarkable coincidence” that the media was present to capture the image of a TWA pilot with a gun to his head. After interviewing pilot John Testrake, Clancy learned it was all staged–which is why he now wonders at the timing of Mughniyeh’s death:

Thursday is February 14. It is the anniversary of the day in 2005 when Lebanon’s former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated with a massive car bomb. Hariri’s son and political heir, Saad Hariri, blames Syria and its Lebanese backers for the killing.

In what has become an annual ritual, tens of thousands of anti-Syrian protesters are expected to take to the streets in remembrance of Hariri.

Now, with planned demonstrations for Imad Mughniyeh, Syria and Hezbollah have a counterweight that could also become an annual commemoration and even a rivalry with Hariri protesters.

And can you imagine the coincidence that both should fall on the same day?

Like the photo of the hijacked pilot and the gunman, not everything is as it appears.