I've heard this theory before, but not a good answer as to why the feds would stage the bombing in the first place. If it was to reduce public sympathy for and the growth of militias, it seems to have failed pretty badly - the Clinton administration evidently didn't feel public opinion had changed enough to let them massacre the Montana Freemen a year later (and even 20 years later the Obama admin. didn't dare turn the Bundy ranch standoff into another Ruby Ridge either, as I had said) and militias continued to grow after the bombing anyway.