Oklahoma City--a decade later.(THE LAST WORD)

Before 9/11 there was Oklahoma City. Before the name of Osama bin Laden entered public discourse there was Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001 for his role in the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building.

Two days after the OKC bombing, President Clinton vowed: "Justice for these killers will be certain, swift and severe. We will find them, we will convict them, and we will seek the death penalty against them." Attorney General Janet Reno and FBI Director Louis Freeh likewise promised that "no stone will be left unturned" in pursuing all of those responsible for this terrible act.

Fine words, tough words, but what really happened? In the months and years that followed those promises, the most extensive and expensive investigation in history turned into the model of official coverups. Evidence was intentionally lost, misplaced, tainted, and destroyed. Important witnesses were ignored or harassed and intimidated. Witness testimony was altered and misrepresented. Some of the most important suspect leads were inexplicably ignored, while federal investigators were sent on wild goose chases and interviews with nut cases. On December 23, 1997, following the verdict in Terry Nichols' federal trial, Janet Reno said: "Two and a half years ago, when the Murrah Building was bombed, FBI Director Louis Freeh and I promised to follow every lead and bring those responsible to justice. Today, that promise has been kept."

That statement was a monstrous, cruel lie, as everyone who has followed this magazine's investigation of the bombing is well aware. The Clinton/Reno/Freeh "investigation" went to incredible lengths to dispose of all evidence that McVeigh and Nichols had other accomplices, especially the mysterious "John Doe No. 2," who was seen with McVeigh at the Ryder truck rental shop and other locations. Despite the testimony of dozens of credible eyewitnesses who placed McVeigh with additional John Does in the days immediately before the bombing and on the day of the bombing itself, the John Doe sightings were dismissed at trial by federal prosecutor Beth Wilkinson as mere "Elvis sightings."

Now, a seemingly unrelated case offers new hope of breaking through the official lies and coverup. In August 1995, four months after the OKC bombing, an inmate died in the Federal Transfer Center in Oklahoma City. Federal officials ruled the death of Kenneth Michael Trentadue a suicide. However, when Trentadue's family finally got his body, they knew the "suicide" was really a homicide. Moreover, it was obvious that he had been tortured, brutally beaten, and strangled. His body was ...