Ellen Harris - Guarding the Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism and a Fathers Murder of His Too-American Daughter

Palestinian Terrorism and a Fathers Murder of His Too-American Daughter

By Ellen F. Harris

A Gordian Knot True Crime Novel

Gordian Knot is an imprint of Crossroad Press

Digital Edition published by Crossroad Press

Smashwords edition published at Smashwords by Crossroad Press

Digital Edition Copyright 2018 Ellen F. Harris

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Ellen Harris is the author of two nonfiction books on murder trials:

Dying To Get Married: The Courtship and Murder of Julie Miller Bulloch, tells of an heiress bride killed by her social climbing husband in a sex bondage ritual. He claimed she made me do it. Misogyny affected this case of domestic violence. Dying was also published in France and Great Britain.

Guarding The Secrets: Palestinian Terrorism And A Fathers Murder of His Too-American Daughter reports the first honor killing in America and the network of terrorist cells and safe houses across the U.S. It illustrates the tension between immigrant teenagers trying to assimilate and their parents who demand they follow old country traditions.

Harriss byline has appeared in The New York Times, Newsweek, Bloomberg News, Missouri Lawyers Weekly,St. Louis magazine, and the Post-Dispatch and the American newspapers.

She has been teaching in the Journalism Program at Washington University since 1998. She also teaches in African-American Studies.

An Emmy-Award winning TV producer, she covered the federal and state courts for 15 years at KMOV-TV in St. Louis. Before that she was a general assignment newspaper reporter at the Globe-Democrat.

She has a B.A. in art history from Washington University in St. Louis. She studied architectural history there in graduate school.

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To Byron Lee Kinder,

Who is wise and loyal and helpful and fun-loving

and who always makes me laugh.

Part One

The Isas: Isa (or Issa, as it is commonly spelled) means Jesus in Arabic.

Jesus is the Latin version of the Hebrew Joshua.

Zein Isa (Zane Ee-sah), born 1931

Maria Matias Isa, born 1943

Leilah* (Lay-lah), born 1963

Mona, born 1965

Soraia (So-roy-ah), born 1967

Palestina (Pah-lah-steen-ah), or Tina, born 1972

Azziz (Ah-zeez) Hamed, Leilahs husband

Naiel (Nile) Abdeljabber (Ab-del-jah-bar), Monas husband

Amjad (Am-jahd) Salem (Sah-lem), Soraias husband

Foiziya (Foy-ee-zah) Isa, Zeins double first cousin and first wife

Faisal (Re-zell) Isa*, Zeins son by earlier marriage

Fayrouz (Fay-rooz) Abdeljabber, Zeins daughter from an earlier marriage

Faiza (Fie-zah) Darwish (Dahr-wish), Zeins daughter from an earlier marriage

Amir Darwish, Faizas husband

Clifford Walker, Tinas boyfriend

Helena Mylanos, Tinas best friend

The Nijmehs: Nijmeh means star

Sausan (Sows-an, which is the same as Suzanne or Susan) and Ahlam

(Ah-lahm) Nijmeh, twin nieces of Maria Isa, whose sister Irecema

married a Nijmeh just after Maria married Zein.

Saif (Safe), or Steve, Nijmeh, husband and cousin of Ahlam

Loqai (Low-kay), or Luie, Nijmeh, Saifs brother and the husband and

cousin of Sausan

Tawfiq (Taw-fick) Musa (Moo-sah), Zeins cousin; Musa is the Arabic

equivalent of Moses.

Abu Nidal leaders formerly in the United States

Mahmoud Atta (Mow-muhd Ahh-tah)

Samir Darwish (Sah-meer Dahr-wish)

Ramsey Clark, Attas defense attorney, the former U.S. attorney general

under Lyndon Johnson

Part Two

Lieutenant Harry Hegger, St. Louis Police Department, later Captain Hegger.

Sergeant Michael Guzy (Guh-zee), St. Louis Homicide

Detective Billy Qualls, St. Louis Homicide, later Sergeant Qualls.

Sergeant Tom Murphy, chief investigator, circuit attorneys office

Mike Tully, investigator, circuit attorneys office

Judge Charles A. Shaw of St. Louis Circuit Court

Charles M. (Charlie) Shaw, Marias defense attorney

Daniel Reardon, Zeins defense attorney

Dee Joyce-Hayes, assistant circuit attorney, later circuit attorney

Robert (Bob) Craddick, assistant circuit attorney

Part Three

James Nelson, FBI special agent in charge, St. Louis

Tom Newman,* supervisor, FBI counterintelligence, St. Louis

James Steitz, assistant U.S. attorney, later an administrative law judge

Keith Liberman, Saif Nijmehs defense attorney

Neil Bruntrager, Luie Nijmehs defense attorney

Linda Murphy, Tawfiq Musas defense attorney

Tom Day, Zeins federal public defender

Note: Spellings of Arabic names in this book vary because one is transcribing phonetically from a different alphabet. There is currently no codified English spelling of Arabic, although many well-known Arabic names and places have conventional spellings in Englishfor example, Cairo, Baghdad, Beirut, Damascus; Nasser, Saddam Hussein, Mubarak, and Assad. However, among the Arab criminal element, spellings and names change as much as the weather during a St. Louis summer week, as one detective remarked.

*Asked that their names be changed.

Righteous women are therefore obedient, guarding the secret for Gods guarding.

And those you fear may be rebellious admonish; banish them to their couches and beat them.

The Quran (Sura 4, 38), trans. A. J. Arberry