THE FIRST NEWS CAME IN a whisper. The President was sitting in the Oval Office, smiling for photographers with Turkish Prime Minister Tansu Ciller, when Mike McCurry, the White House press secretary, bent close to his ear. CNN, McCurry said, was reporting that an explosion had destroyed part of a federal building in Oklahoma City. Stay on top of it, Clinton replied. The President then escorted Ciller to a meeting in the Cabinet Room. It was there that Leon Panetta, Clinton's chief of staff, passed the President a yellow legal pad with notes scribbled across the page with Panetta's trademark blue...
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