They lied about it because it would hurt Clinton politically to appear impotent in protecting the US against terrorism. The OKC bombing was blamed on right-wing talk radio. TWA 800 was blamed on a gas tank explosion, although the FAA never made one recommendation on how to prevent future explosions (ever heard of that before?)<p. Clinton was behind in the polls before OKC. George Stephanopolous stated that OKC was what won Clinton the election. Clinton blamed conservatives for it. OKC was the Rats Reichstag fire.
Good way of putting it.