Desert Scoured for Clues in Oklahoma Case : Bombing: Friend of McVeigh purportedly tells officials a bag buried in Arizona may hold evidence about attack. Snakes hamper search.

Federal investigators probing the bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building have been discreetly searching remote desert sections of Arizona for a buried duffel bag or large package that could hold some important clues to the terrorist attack last April.

The search was launched after Michael Fortier, a Kingman, Ariz., gun enthusiast and close associate of chief bombing suspect Timothy J. McVeigh, told officials that the items buried in the sand and scrub outside Kingman could provide evidence for prosecutors who are building their case in the April 19 bombing that killed 168.

Although sources close to the case declined to say what they think may be buried in the desert, one official said it is his understanding that the items either were buried by Fortier and McVeigh before the bombing or by Fortier alone after McVeigh was arrested in April.

The sources noted that Fortier has emerged as a potential suspect in the case and that he told the FBI about the buried items when he was trying to negotiate a plea bargain that would have made him a central prosecution witness in return for a lighter prison sentence. The sources declined to say why authorities cannot learn the precise location of the items.

“Fortier has given up stuff about McVeigh and that’s why we’re out there searching the desert,” one official said Tuesday.

Fortier told investigators that the items were inside an Army-type “duffel bag or large package” that apparently was buried in a desolate, hard-to-get-to area where Fortier sometimes jogged and exercised his dog.

Federal investigators began searching the desert Sunday. But sources said that they were hampered in their hunt because the area is infested with snakes.

The search, the latest twist in the extensive investigation into the Oklahoma City bombing, comes one month before the Aug. 11 deadline for a federal grand jury indictment in the case.

McVeigh and a second Army buddy, Terry L. Nichols, are in federal custody in El Reno, Okla., charged in the blast.

Sources said the grand jury also is reviewing evidence and taking testimony to determine whether others beyond McVeigh and Nichols should be named as defendants.

Elsewhere Tuesday, an Army private--once thought to be the suspect “John Doe No. 2”--spoke publicly for the first time at Ft. Riley, Kan., where McVeigh, Fortier and Nichols all served.

Pfc. Todd Bunting, 23, said at a news conference at the Army base that he had nothing to do with the bombing and that the FBI had cleared him of any wrongdoing.

He said he visited a Junction City, Kan., truck agency on April 18, the day after McVeigh allegedly rented a yellow Ryder truck there that allegedly was used to deliver the bomb to Oklahoma City. He said he was mistaken for the alleged accomplice, a situation that has caused him some consternation.

“I want people to know I had nothing to do with this,” Bunting said. “I was just at the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Serrano reported from Oklahoma City and Ft. Riley, and Ostrow from Washington.