their loved ones brought to justice. Federal Judge Richard Matsch, who presided over McVeigh's trial, has said, "There are many unanswered questions. It would be very disappointing to me if the law enforcement agencies of the United States government have quit looking for answers in this Oklahoma bombing tragedy."

For the most part, the media has accepted and promoted the government's version of the bombing: that McVeigh--with minor assistance from Terry Nichols--acted alone. The one-man, one-bomb scenario.

Some writers, though, have questioned these conclusions. Reporter James Ridgeway, writing in The Village Voice about a week before McVeigh was scheduled to be executed, brought up many unanswered questions. These included: Who was the dark-skinned John Doe #1 who people testified seeing McVeigh with on the morning of the bombing? How could McVeigh and Nichols have built a 4,800 pound ANFO bomb on the evening before the bombing--as the government claims--if bomb experts claim that much more time would have been needed to do that? Could the anti-government terrorist groups that McVeigh had connections to have collaborated in the atrocity? Gore Vidal's article in Vanity Fair (September 2001) was entitled The McVeigh Conspiracy. In the article, Vidal is extremely critical of the FBI, who, he shows, failed to investigate many promising leads that could have lead to the identity of McVeigh accomplices. The famous journalist-novelist feels that the McVeigh-Nichols scenario is unlikely and makes no sense. Vidal suggests and shows evidence that McVeigh could have been working with Arab terrorists, or anti-government terrorists, or even ("who knows?") government agents. He suggests that even the "grandest conspiracy theory of all" is a possibility--that McVeigh neither built nor detonated a bomb, and is a patsy. Vidal had been exchanging letters with McVeigh, and was

one of the few people that McVeigh invited to witness his execution. Vidal is convinced that McVeigh confessed to something he didn't do alone--or didn't do at all--because McVeigh felt that his lawyer had "blown" the case, and he wanted to be executed as a martyr, a protester of government abuse, rather than face the prospect of living in a prison cell for fifty years with the threat of rape an everyday fear.

Charles Key was a Oklahoma state representative from 1986-1998, during which time he served on the Banking and Finance, Criminal Justice, and other committees. Mr. Key served as Republican Whip during part of his tenure. Soon after the Oklahoma City bombing, survivors and relatives of the victims of the bombing began contacting Key to complain about the manner in which the Federal Government was conducting the investigation. Within hours and days of the bombing, many suspicious facts were coming to light. So many broken-hearted families affected directly by the bombing had unanswered questions and implored Key, in his capacity as an elected official, to pursue further investigation into the case. This resulted in the formation of the Oklahoma Bombing Investigation Committee (OBIC). The OBIC--which consists of Key and three other prominent Oklahoma citizens--was established in April 1997 to investigate matters that government agencies had refused to consider, and to submit information to the Oklahoma County Grand Jury which was impaneled in June 1997.

In the winter of 2001 the OBIC released its Final Report On The Bombing Of The Alfred P. Murrah Building April 19, 1995. The report is extremely critical of the government and FBI. Citing government documents and the findings of their own investigators, the OBIC claims the government has engaged in a massive cover-up.