From misc.activism.progressive Tue Mar 28 11:45:52 1995 From: rich@math.missouri.edu Subject: Is OKC Bombing Provocateur Still in Prison? Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive Followup-To: alt.activism.d Approved: map@pencil.math.missouri.edu Organization: ? Status: OR http://www.mccurtain.com/okcarchives.shtml http://www.mccurtain.com/cgi-bin/okcscript.cgi?record=1499 Michael Fortier about to be released from prison? 1/3/2006 J.D. Cash The governments key witness in the Oklahoma City bombing case, Michael Fortier, may soon be leaving federal prison yet survivors and family members of those murdered in the April 19, 1995, bombing cant find out when, nor what name he is using now. Rumors have been circulating that Fortier will be released later this month, possibly as early as Jan. 21, but no one will confirm the information not even to those most deeply affected by the decade-old crime than stunned the entire country. U.S. Department of Justice guidelines require notification of victims relatives, witnesses and survivors in cases such as this, but apparently none of the 3,000 estimated members of that class have been told when Fortier is to be released. A grandmother who lost two grandchildren in the bombing, Janie Coverdale, said she has made several inquiries without success trying to find out the information she has long been promised by the government. The word circulating here in Oklahoma City is he may get out in three weeks, Coverdale explained. But they wont tell us officially. What are they afraid of; that we will do to him what he helped Tim and Terry do to us? A spokesman for the U.S. attorneys office in Oklahoma City said she has no idea when Mr. Fortier will be released. Victim-witness coordinator for the office, Dahlia Lehman, said, The BOP is supposed to take care of that. We pass all that off to them. Questioned more closely about the policy governing the disclosure of prisoner releases, Lehman said only, There is a policy, but we dont know what it is. Lehman agreed there is substantial interest in the case because she helped arrange for hundreds of these family members to attend trials in Denver and watch the coverage in Oklahoma City on a closed-circuit feed at the FAA Center. I know they will be told somehow about this, but it wont be by us, Lehman said. In August of 1995, Fortier entered into a plea arrangement with the DOJ after considerable national publicity speculated about his role in the crime a crime that left 168 dead and 500 more injured. A former army buddy of bombing suspects Terry Nichols and Timothy McVeigh, the Kingman, Ariz., resident had been under intense pressure from federal authorities since his first interview with them on April 21, 1995. Reports of those early FBI interviews record that Fortier was evasive and often changed his story. On numerous occasions federal agents discovered holes in Fortiers alibi and regularly confronted him with evidence he and his wife had obviously helped further the bombing conspiracy and were lying about it. On the eve of giving testimony to a federal grand jury in Oklahoma City, Fortier and wife Lori told FBI agents they were finally willing to talk to avoid a death penalty trial. After weeks of negotiations, in August 1995, DOJ officials finally announced that Fortier would plead guilty to lesser charges in exchange for his testimony before a federal grand jury. Fortiers wife was given immunity in exchange for her cooperation; she would not serve a day in prison. Initially, the public was told that Fortier would face up to 23 years for pleading guilty to lying to a federal agent, interstate transportation of stolen firearms, and failure to report a serious crime. The length of the sentence mollified many, but some still demanded the couple stand trial for murder. Prosecutors countered, saying they needed the pairs cooperation to make their case against Nichols and McVeigh stick. During both federal trials in Denver and the Nichols state trial in McAlester, the Fortiers provided jurors with testimony that at times appeared so well-rehearsed that they sometimes answered prosecutors questions even before the questions were posed. During this testimony, the couple admitted that were privy to the plot to bomb the Oklahoma City federal building. They even admitted helping store explosives for the attack. Lori Fortier, in her testimony, even admitted making the fake drivers license the government said was used to rent the truck that delivered the bomb. In his role, Mike Fortier said he traveled to Oklahoma City with McVeigh in December 1994 to case the building before going to Kansas to pick up stolen firearms the conspirators wanted to sell to raise money for the attack. For many, these admissions were extraordinary and very painful. Once again a chorus from victims went up, saying the Fortiers should have been charged right along with McVeigh and Nichols with first-degree murder. In spite of this hostility, though, the government later argued for a substantial reduction in Fortiers maximum sentence. After hearing evidence of how helpful Mike Fortier had been, a court agreed and handed down a sentence of only 12 years, with credit allowed for time already served. As a condition of the agreement, Fortier was placed in the witness protection program. In this program, federal inmates receive special care and are allowed regular visits with family at an undisclosed federal facility where they are incarcerated under a new name. A call to the BOP in Washington DC., Friday, was quickly returned. Concerning inmate Fortier, BOP spokesman Mike Truman said he would fax to the newspaper the agencys policies regarding notification to witnesses and victims. Asked when Fortier would be released, Mr. Truman said, We dont have anyone in our system with that name.