08x38 - Honor thy Father

[bunniefuu]

[Music]

even before the attack on the World

Trade Center in New York intelligence

agencies were watching a number of

suspected t*rror1st cells throughout the

United States the FBI uncovered evidence

of a terrible crime by some individuals

using the cover of a st. Louis grocery

store but it took a forensic autopsy and

a tape to reveal the entire story

[Music]

sixteen year old Tina Issa was a kind of

daughter most parents dream of she was a

high school athlete popular straight-a

student and wanted to attend college and

become an airline pilot Tina wanted to

be American Tina wanted to be

independent she wanted to have a career

she wanted to travel she wanted to be

your own person her mother and father

Zane and Maria ista were immigrants from

Palestine and ran a small grocery store

in downtown st. Louis like most

immigrants the Palestinians went into

the food business that's a tradition in

America food service is one of the

easiest types of business to operate

what was especially appealing to the

ESA's and the relative is it was another

way to rip off America they could avoid

paying taxes they would play little

games with food stamp fraud grocery

coupons

I mean Dane even said he loved America

because there were so many ways to rip

it off on November 6 1989 tina was

working the night shift at a fast-food

restaurant

according to the ESA's Tina arrived home

around midnight and there was an

argument Tina said she wanted to live on

her own and demanded that her parents

give her five thousand dollars to

support herself when they refused they

said Tina pulled a knife from her

backpack and threatened them in the

tussle Zane said he turned the knife on

his daughter in self-defense

father was saying it was self-defense

and the wife a thing yes it was

self-defense I was standing there

watching so the only two witnesses to

the crime had the story's kind of get

together that that their daughter had

att*cked them and in defending them

themselves they the father had children

news of Tina ESA's death stunned her

friends and classmates just her charisma

her just her attitude overall period I

mean she was just too nice of a person

for anything we're just happy to see

when the studies on China's it's

terrible who's so fed Tina's classmates

told police that Tina often rebelled

against her parents and their old world

traditions they also said the ESA's

objected to Tina's choice of a boyfriend

he was an honor student he was very very

bright he was at the magnet schools

which means sophisticated programming

papers Public Schools he was an artist

he painted he drew he wrote homes I

don't think it was just that he was

black I think the real issue was that

she had a boyfriend and they could no

longer control her when the FBI heard

about Tina's death they called lead

investigator Harry Hagar with some

astonishing news US intelligence had

photographed Zane Issa attending a

meeting with known t*rrorists in Mexico

all had ties to the Palestine Liberation

Organization and international terror

broker Abu Nidal Abu Nidal means father

of warm Abu father Nidal w*r and he was

one of the most vicious t*rror1st round

he's responsible for simultaneous

bombings in Vienna Rome

over a two year period they Anissa

traveled overseas 14 times to Caracas

Athens London Israel Zurich and Madrid

the FBI among others were maintaining a

watch on middle-eastern families some

that might presumably have connections

with t*rror1st cells the ESA's were

maintaining what might have been a safe

house for one of the Middle Eastern

t*rror1st groups

so the ISA family were well known to US

intelligence if the federal undercover

said to me these people are as organized

as the Mafia not nearly as lovable

investigators now wondered whether there

was more to the story of Tina's death

and her mother and father were saying

Tina's parents insisted that her death

was in self-defense because she had

att*cked them with a knife

Tina's father was covered in blood and

had cuts on his hands which he said were

defensive wounds that resulted from his

daughter's knife attack when I reviewed

a little bit of history that I knew it's

time it sounded extremely vicious to me

medical examiner's have long referred to

the autopsy as the Silent Witness a way

for the victim to tell her story things

that the suspects in the crime usually

leave out at Tina's autopsy forensic

pathologist dr. Philip Burch started his

examination with a forensic technique

known as wound pattern analysis

I didn't look just at one wound in this

case I looked at all of the wounds as

whole Tina sustained six deep s*ab

wounds to the solar plexus all in close

proximity dr. Burch believed that any

one of them could have caused her death

the serious injuries to her oral tightly

clustered right around her lower central

chest and abdomen and I was told that

she was supposedly involved in a while

free for all type fight with a knife and

that seemed to be very odd that all of

the fatal injuries were very tightly

clustered within a specific area of the

body

that's because stabbing victims usually

moved during an attack I didn't feel

that she was involved in a fight where

she was able to move her extremities

freely that is either she stayed

Stockstill of her own volition for

whatever reason or she was unable to

move or she was actually restrained dr.

Burgess theory was supported by

paramedics who said Tina's arms were

above her head on the floor as if she

had been restrained

Zain couldn't have held her he was not a

big man his daughter was probably as big

or bigger than he he could not have

inflicted that kind of injury pattern on

her and held her at the same time

the only other person in the room esteem

is mother Maria Maria said she was on

the sofa when the fight occurred but the

forensic evidence indicated otherwise

there was body hair and blood from the

girl on the inside of a white sweater

that Maria had been wearing at the time

and that supported our theory that Maria

was holding her wild things banker went

beyond self-defense this was like driven

by anger or passion or some purpose

other than self-defense investigators

then took a closer look at the wounds on

st. Anne's wounds that he said were

defensive the story didn't match what we

saw was a small like I said with a paper

cut I think that in stabbing her his

hands were so bloody and slippery than

what really happened his hand slipped

down on the blade of the knife and cut

it cut it right across the outside of

his palm right below the little finger

this explains why Zane's blood was found

on the handle of the knife found beside

his daughter

but prosecutors had a problem would a

jury believe that a father and mother

would k*ll their own child simply

because she had an outside job and the

boyfriend sounds so aberrant so strange

I mean she was a model student we're

talking about absolute control vain ISA

filled mentally was listening to tapes

from circa 1945 in a Palestinian village

and that's the way he thought his

daughter should behave and the FBI

discovered secret information

the Tina ISA may have known some family

secrets her father didn't want reveal

[Music]

the forensic evidence clearly showed

that 16 year old Tina Issa had not been

k*lled in self-defense as her parents

claimed dr. Victor Levine is an expert

on the Middle East and says Tina's death

sounded tragically familiar saying ISA

comes from a small town in in Palestine

and he carried wizard that old baggage

every day there are dozens and even

hundreds of women who are in some

fashion k*lled for the commission of

some crime involving the sexual honor of

the family

although dating is common in the United

States

it's discouraged in parts of the Middle

East where arranged marriages are the

norm a man and his family have daughters

daughters are the purity of these women

of these daughters and guarantees a

marriage it's a and the delivery of the

girl intact virginal e intact which then

commands a higher dowry a girl who had

been piling does not command add our

fact may not be able to find a husband

Tina's death may have been part of an

old tradition the honor k*lling

she stained the family's honor and blood

Jane would say blood must cleanse what

in societies were honor killings are

common it is generally a k*lling done by

a male member of a family presumably to

avenge a depredation on the honor of a

female member of the family

she had a black boyfriend and this was

enough to cause the anger of her family

and her father to arise to the boiling

point where indeed he felt that the

family had been so shamed by her

indiscretion that the only way to avenge

it was to k*ll her prosecutors were

convinced she had been m*rder*d in cold

blood by her own parents but they knew a

conviction would be difficult it would

be the ESA's story of self-defense

against the opinion of the medical

examiner

soon investigators got an unexpected

break the FBI admitted they had wiretaps

the ESA's home because of Zain suspected

ties to known t*rrorists wiretaps were

put in under a Foreign Intelligence

Surveillance Act known as FISA FISA

allows the FBI to pass you wiretaps

that run reel-to-reel 24 hours a day

seven days a week

visa was not considered important enough

to monitor these wiretaps 24 hours a day

so the FBI wasn't sure what was on them

and they would need to be translated

since the ESA's spoke Arabic fortunately

the FBI used the best listening devices

available diverse of the top of the line

they could pick up a whisper of 50 feet

some of these things at their place

properly placement of any listening

device is crucial after breaking into

the ISA apartment agents did not have

much time to plant the bug they needed

not only a place to hide the device but

also a power source a battery operated

device is the easiest to plant but with

a long-term surveillance the battery

would need to be replaced periodically

get in there once if you're lucky to get

in there twice you're even luckier in

the third time you could come to get

caught the FBI had been able to connect

the devices to electric inside ESA's

apartment

and prosecutors learned that the wiretap

clearly picked up the altercation

between Tina and her parents but the FBI

was concerned about releasing the tapes

for a public trial

fearing they would compromise their

electronic surveillance of others

suspected t*rrorists altom Utley the

Attorney General of the United States at

the time Richard Thornberg decided to

release them it was the most chilling

and cold-blooded horrifying thing ever

or ever probably will hear you don't

have to have a translator you don't have

to turn the volume up in fact at several

times you want to turn the volume down

but would the tape reveal whether Tina

Issa was k*lled in self-defense or

m*rder*d in cold blood

prosecutors now had something almost

unheard of in the history of American

justice an audio recording of the events

before during and after Dana 'yes' death

[Music]

several weeks before the m*rder the FBI

surveillance recorded this telephone

conversation between Zane and his

relatives in which they discussed ways

to make Tina's death look like an

accident as you said she threatened me

and I k*lled her she threatened me and

I'll put the knife in her hand after she

falls leave the story to me five hours

before

Tina's death Zane called his daughter

from a previous marriage

one can fight the whole world but who

wants to fight an enemy in your own

house when the news comes to me I will

put on my best dress and go out my

worries will be gone forever

in the middlee shame is something which

is felt collectively by a family it is a

discovery of the act you've done

something bad the community knows about

it your entire family is shape

the tapes reveal the ESA's were angry

Tina took a job at a fast-food

restaurant without their approval and

they were all so upset she continued to

date her boyfriend when Tina arrived

home this was the welcome from her

mother that's going to be the last time

she's ever going to leave that apart

[Music]

Zayn and Maria then confronted Tina

about her boyfriend

[Music]

[Music]

the argument escalated

intimately evidence suggests lane went

into the kitchen and grabbed a knife

penis then screams pleading with her

mother to help penis cleaning mother

please help me mother can't you make him

stop and then he said die my daughter

died when she was done

Maria held Tina while Jane stabbed her

to death and the telltale signs was the

mother's response what help No

shut up no we're on the tape at Tina's

demand $5,000 and there was no reference

to Tina having a knife

the tape also reveals the ESA's waited

for close to 30 minutes to call police

after the m*rder

brain and Maria visa were both charged

with first-degree m*rder sir what does

your brother say to you you know with

all the things I do it fix the news

media but I think you're overdoing it

authorities speculated that the ESA's

were afraid of what Tina might reveal to

others had there been a permanent risk

in the family

the indictment alleges there were other

reasons because of her knowledge of

their terror spective and airplanes to

talk about exactly they're concerned

that she might possibly Ellen Harris

wrote a book about this case called

guarding the secrets the prosecution

offered Zane a deal that if he pled

guilty to m*rder in the first degree

they would go lighter on Maria and he

refused to do so so he had no interest

in saving his own life after hearing the

tapes and the medical examiner's report

the jury found Shane and Maria Issa

guilty they were both sentenced to death

Zane died in prison of natural causes

in 1998 before his execution could be

carried out

Maria's death sentence was later

reversed on a technicality but she will

spend the rest of her life in prison

without parole

as for Tina ISA those who knew her are

left to mourn

Tina was a natural born leader she would

have done great things for this

community and the Arab community had she

moved it had not been for Zane ISA

suspected ties to terrorism the

prosecutors theory about what happened

the Tina and ISA would have been just

then but the audio tape proved what many

jurors could have found difficult to

accept you can hear in her voice

preparing for a margarita there's not a

whole lot you can say it's just as I

said earlier the most horrifying thing I

ever hope to hear and and it's been

conferring

it's the kind of thing that once you

hear it you cannot forget it and once

you hear it you don't want to hear it

again

the medical examiner did not hear the

audio tape until sometime after the

trial but he wasn't surprised by what it

revealed I was able to parallel the

information that was provided on the

tape with information that I simply saw

with my own eyes looking at the dead

body

on the morning that I did the autopsy as

far as I'm concerned an intentional

homicide