From: Ed Sent: Sunday, April 15, 2012 12:18 AM To: Epstein, Jeff Subject: My piece in today's Wall Street Journal ( embedded in tmy uthor's ID is announcement of my DSK book) Investigating the Investigation By Edward Jay Epstein, Wall Street Journal ( April 14) rttp://on.wsj.com/HIEFFI At 9:02 a.m. on April 19, 1995, a huge truck bomb destroyed a large =art of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, =amaging more than 300 other buildings and killing 168 people, =ncluding 19 children at a day-care center. The bombing was the =eadliest terror attack America had experienced before the 9/11 assault =nd, understandably, caused a public outcry for justice In a matter of days the FBI established that the bombing was the work =f a conspiracy. While that word may not always sit well with =ournalists, conspiracies are the rule, not the exception, when it =omes to perpetrating such crimes. According to the Center on Law and =ecurity at Fordham University, which tracks federal terrorism cases, =2% of all federal indictments for such cases since 2001 contained a =onspiracy charge. The first conspirator arrested was Timothy McVeigh, a 27-year-old Army =eteran, who had been awarded the Bronze Star during the first Gulf =ar. As the evidence clearly showed, McVeigh had driven the truck bomb =o Oklahoma City and detonated it. The second conspirator arrested was =erry Nichols, a 40-year-old farmer who had befriended McVeigh in the =rmy and who had helped him prepare and arm the truck bomb. Both =cVeigh and Mr. Nichols were found guilty of a conspiracy to use a =eapon of mass destruction. McVeigh was sentenced to death and executed =n June 11, 2001. Mr. Nichols was sentenced to life imprisonment with =o possibility of parole. The only other person charged in the =onspiracy was Michael Fortier, who pleaded guilty to not warning =uthorities of the attack; he was sentenced to 12 years and is now in =he witness-protection program, having testified f