McVeigh, Friend Said to Have Cased Bomb Site

The man emerging as a key figure in the Oklahoma City bombing has told authorities that he and Timothy J. McVeigh went “floor to floor” through the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building posing as job applicants so they could survey the structure as a potential target for destruction, a source close to the case said Saturday.

Michael Fortier, who went to Oklahoma City with his wife last week to testify before a federal grand jury, contends that while he and McVeigh lived and worked in Kingman, Ariz., they discussed blowing up the Murrah building and several other sites, the source said.

Fortier told the FBI that in the days before the April 19 explosion, he and McVeigh, whom he had met in the Army, traveled to Oklahoma City together. He said they went inside the nine-story Murrah building to inspect the federal offices located there.

“He said they went floor to floor in there, asking about work and picking up job applications,” said the source, a federal official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. “But he said their real reason was to check the place out.”

Fortier’s account could serve as a major break for federal law enforcement officials who are looking for signs of a wider conspiracy beyond McVeigh and another Army friend, Terry L. Nichols, in the bombing case.

But officials said they are wary that Fortier could be trying to strike a deal with prosecutors, and they harbor doubts about his veracity concerning what he might or might not know about the bombing and other matters.

Earlier this month, for instance, the 26-year-old Arizona man insisted to reporters that McVeigh was being falsely accused in the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.

“I do not believe that Tim blew up any building in Oklahoma,” Fortier told CNN on May 8. “There’s nothing for me to look back upon and say: ‘Yeah, that might have been. I should have seen it back then.’ There’s nothing like that.”

To federal officials, Fortier presents a quandary. Should his version of events leading up to the explosion hold true, he either becomes a prime witness against McVeigh or the third person to be charged with “aiding and abetting” the bombing conspiracy. His comments about casing the Murrah building not only appear to put him at the scene before the blast, but also indicate he had a direct role in the preparations for the bombing.

Another source close to the case said Fortier began reciting his version of events with McVeigh only after being summoned to testify before the grand jury last week.

His background is being thoroughly reviewed, and he will be given a polygraph examination to measure his honesty, the source said. In addition, the FBI will search for any documents or corroborating witnesses that can bear out Fortier’s story.

Investigators are proceeding with “an abundance of caution,” the source said, noting that some of Fortier’s past statements have been contradictory. “He certainly started down a slippery slope here,” the official said.

McVeigh, 27, was arrested in Perry, Okla., on a traffic violation 90 minutes after the bombing. He was charged two days later with carrying out the attack.

Nichols, 40, surrendered in Herington, Kan., on April 21. After a brief period in which he was held as a material witness to the case, Nichols was charged in the bombing. He also provided the FBI with potentially incriminating information, contending that McVeigh warned him in the days before the bombing that “something big was going to happen.”

Both McVeigh and Nichols are being held in the Federal Correctional Institution in El Reno, Okla., as the federal grand jury continues to review the case. Prosecutors hope to convince the panel that a larger conspiracy indictment should be filed against the two men--and possibly others.

The search for another suspect known only as “John Doe No. 2” continues. But sources said the FBI is checking out the possibility that John Doe No. 2 might have been someone who just happened to be at the Ryder truck rental agency in Junction City, Kan., when McVeigh allegedly leased the vehicle used in the explosion.

One source said officials are going back through the rental company’s records to determine whether a Ryder employee mistook the second person as being with McVeigh. Investigators are being “very, very cautious here,” the source said.

Fortier and his wife, Laurie, left Arizona for Oklahoma City in the middle of last week. They live about two miles north of Kingman in a neighborhood of stucco houses and trailer homes. Outside their home is a flagpole bearing both a U.S. flag and a Colonial-era banner emblazoned with a snake and the motto “Don’t Tread on Me.”

A reedy man with a dark goatee, spectacles and thin black hair parted down the middle and worn over the ears, Fortier struck acquaintances as polite but circumspect.

Paul Shuffler, owner of the local True Value hardware franchise, hired both Fortier and McVeigh to work at his store on Stockton Hill Road in Kingman.

Shuffler said he first hired Fortier in the late 1980s when he was graduated from high school. Fortier worked as a yard hand, loading lumber into pickups. After about a year, Fortier quit and joined the Army.

It was at Ft. Riley, Kan., that Fortier met McVeigh, who would become his best friend and the best man at his wedding.

“After he [Fortier] got out of the service, we hired him again,” Shuffler said, noting that he tried to accommodate Fortier’s desire “to move up.” Shuffler promoted Fortier to an accounting position in which he helped with “light bookkeeping”--accounts receivable, payroll and filing. “He was above-average intelligence,” Shuffler said.

In February of last year, Fortier recommended that Shuffler hire McVeigh as a yard hand. “Fortier’s the one who got McVeigh the job here,” Shuffler said.

Although McVeigh only kept the job for two months, Shuffler said it was obvious “to anyone who was here” that the two former Army buddies were close friends. While other workers would fraternize together or play on the store’s basketball or softball teams, Fortier and McVeigh seemed to confide only in each other.

Shuffler said Fortier never discussed politics or expressed anger at the government while on the job. Yet Shuffler said he was not surprised when he learned that Fortier had claimed prior knowledge of the Oklahoma City bombing.

“Those two were friends,” Shuffler said. “If you were here and saw them [together], you’d understand. . . . I always felt Fortier knew more [about the bombing] than he was telling.”

When Fortier quit last December, he did not give a clear explanation other than complaining about the size of his Christmas bonus.

But Shuffler said he assumed Fortier quit to purchase the Beach Club, the only tanning salon in Kingman, a town of 13,240 people. About two weeks before Fortier quit, a local bank called the True Value store regarding Fortier’s application for a loan to buy the tanning business, he said.

Phyllis Eaton, owner of the Beach Club, said Fortier and his wife had tried to buy the business in June and July of 1994. The Beach Club is in a mini-mall about two doors from the Mail Room, a commercial postage drop where Fortier occasionally picked up McVeigh’s mail.

Eaton said the Fortiers’ purchase of her business fell through when certain conditions could not be met. “They both were real pleasant, very polite. As far as I knew them, they were both nice people.”

The Fortiers were well regarded by neighbor Patty Edwards. She said she occasionally played cards and socialized with the Fortiers and McVeigh but had no inkling of potential violence or terrorism.

Serrano reported from Washington and Willman from Kingman. Staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington contributed to this story.