An ATF spokesperson told a group of reporters that there had been an ongoing sensitive sting operation (the nature of which he left undefined) and, as part of that, the Murrah building was under surveillance throughout the night of April 18, but the stake-out was discontinued at around 6:00 am on the morning of April 19. He later retracted his statement, but that really didn’t matter because, even before he made it, several eyewitnesses reported that they saw bomb disposal units near the Murrah building and federal courthouse and members
