DID INFORMANT TIP FEDS TO BOMB PLOT?
by Ryan Ross | Denver Digital
March 26, 1997

DENVER -- A former government informant who says he tipped government agents  to a plot to bomb federal buildings twice in the month before the Oklahoma  City bombing is suing federal officials for revoking the immunity they  granted him for his information.

Cary Gagan of Denver says in the suit, filed February 14, that despite his  willingness to help government agents penetrate the plot, they made no  attempt to verify his information, and that as a result they "contributed" to  the April 19, 1995 bombing of the Alfred Murrah  federal building in  Oklahoma City in which 168 people were killed.

U.S. Attorney Henry Solano didn't respond to a request for comment, but in  the February 1, 1996 letter in which federal prosecutors revoked Gagan's  immunity they wrote that they were unable to "meaningfully corroborate"  his information because of his refusal to cooperate with agents or take a  polygraph, and because of his inability to provide meaningful details.

Gagan couldn't be reached for comment, but in his suit, which he filed  without the aid of an attorney, he denies refusing to take a polygraph. He  says agents were unable to corroborate his information because they didn't try.

Glenn Wilburn of Oklahoma City, the grandfather of two victims of the  blast who's investigated the bombing because he doesn't trust the  government's account, says federal agents bungled their handling of  Gagan.  "They  were absolutely negligent in not reviewing his  information," Wilburn charges. "They tended to ignore a lot of what they were  told before the bombing, and then after it happened they tried to cover up  what they knew."

In his suit, Gagan accuses Solano of revealing Gagan's identity to a  reporter in August, 1995, even though Gagan was a confidential government  informant at the  time. Solano's action exposed Gagan and members of his  family to harm, he says. He's seeking nearly $8 million in damages.

In papers filed with the  suit,  Gagan  details  the information he  provided under immunity. In a March 27, 1995, letter he described a  meeting he'd attended at a Denver hotel 10 days earlier, during which  people he identified as terrorists -- but whose real names he doesn't know -- discussed plans "involving more than the bombing of government buildings" that  would be hatched "in a short period of time."

In an April 6 letter -- 13 days before the Oklahoma City blast -- he wrote  that he had "specific information that within two weeks a federal building  is to be bombed in this area or nearby."

Gagan says he was willing to detail for federal agents what he had seen.  At the March 17 meeting, for example, the plotters reviewed photos of federal  agents and diagrams of federal buildings, including the  Murrah  building  in Oklahoma City.

He says he was involved in trips he believes involved pre-bomb planning.  On January 14, 1995, Gagan says he drove a van loaded with explosives and bomb  components from one Denver-area location to another. On April 4 he was  directed to drive to Kingman, Arizona, where he dropped off a package.  Accused Oklahoma City bomber McVeigh lived in Kingman in the months  before  the  bombing,  as  did self-confessed Oklahoma City bombing co- conspirator Michael Fortier. Two days before the bombing, Gagan says he  drove a van he believes contained explosives from Denver to Trinidad,  where he turned the van over to a member of the terrorist group.

Gagan said he's provided agents with descriptions of the plotters, and  identified them by the nicknames he knows them by. They are of Middle  Eastern or Latin descent, he says. He was told some live in Denver;  others abroad. Attached to his suit are receipts and other records that he  says confirm Gagan's account of meeting with and trips on behalf of the  plotters.

The 52-year-old Gagan says in the suit that he provided information about  the plotting under terms of immunity he'd been granted in September of 1994.  The agreement indicates that immunity was provided after Gagan contacted the  U.S. Marshals Service with information "concerning a conspiracy and/or attempt  to destroy United States court facilities in Denver and possibly others  cities."

In the lawsuit, Gagan says  federal  law  enforcement regulations  require agents to monitor and control the actions of official informants.  That didn't happen in his case, he says. He says he was ignored despite  repeated offers to help agents corroborate his information. He even told them  of actions the conspirators had asked him to take before he complied with his  instructions so they could launch an undercover surveillance  operation.  To  his knowledge they never did.

The ex-informant says he wasn't contacted by  federal officials until  September of 1995, five months after the Oklahoma City bombing, and then  only by agents wanting to see if he could prove he had warned federal  officials about the bomb plot. Gagan says he can.

Court records show Gagan has twice been convicted of charges stemming  from fraudulent insurance claims. He was placed on three years probation  after the first conviction, and served five years of an eight-year prison  term after the second, which involved about $23,000.

In his lawsuit, Gagan alleges his immunity shouldn't have been revoked  without a hearing. He's seeking a ruling that the revocation  was  unconstitutional,  and  an  order prohibiting federal officials from  enforcing it. His suit has been assigned to district court Judge Daniel  Sparr.

Last summer Gagan told McVeigh's lawyer, Stephen Jones, about his work as a  government informant. Without revealing Gagan's name, Jones issued a  statement asking whether officials at the day-care center in the  Oklahoma City federal building had been warned of the threat Gagan passed on.  U.S. Attorney Solano said at the time that Gagan's information was  investigated  and  that  no  credible information was found.

Gagan was subsequently identified in a report on Denver television station  KMGH, in an article in the Indiana-based magazine MediaBypass, and in OK Bomb,  a book by Jim Keith. He names KMGH owner McGraw-Hill, and the publishers  of Media ByPass and OK Bomb as co-defendants in his suit.

Original articles and artwork Copyright 1997 Digital City Denver.