Following Terror's Forgotten Trail
An explosives case raises ghosts of a bloody past
Federal officials remain unconvinced; they say that since at least 1983, the FBI has suspected Topalian of ties to terrorist activity. But this raises another troubling issue: How, then, did Topalian become a regular guest at the White House? According to official logs, Topalian visited the White House 17 times from 1993 to 1996, where he met with national security staff and had at least two sit-downs with President Clinton just months before the explosives were discovered. Only after Elliott alerted the Secret Service in 1996 was Topalian's access cut off. "Somebody dropped the ball," says one official.
Last week, a federal judge in Cleveland sentenced Topalian to 37 months in prison, the maximum allowed under sentencing guidelines. Jail takes him away from a wife and six children, including a 7-year-old daughter recovering from leukemia. His case, meanwhile, may open new investigations into acts of terror long forgotten, including the 1982 murders of diplomats in Boston and Ottawa. It was shortly after those murders that a Cleveland newspaper asked local Armenians how they felt about attacks on Turkish officials. "There are two victims," a young Mourad Topalian told the paper, "the one who got shot and the one who was pushed to that extreme."
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