More Evidence Links Suspect to Militias

AS Oklahoma City residents attended a series of funerals and rescuers sifted the federal building debris for missing people, new evidence is emerging about the bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh.

He has refused to answer any questions about the worst domestic terrorist attack in US history. But others have much to say about the suspect. And investigators said plastic barrels similar to those that might have held the chemicals used in the bomb were found at the home of Terry Nichols, a Michigan man held as a material witness.

A Florida militia leader, Bob Johansen, told the Associated Press that Mr. McVeigh visited that state 18 months ago with Mark Koernke, who broadcasts a militant radio show and distributes militia videotapes from Michigan.

McVeigh was one of several bodyguards for Mr. Koernke at a gathering of right-wing militias, members of the Florida State Militia said in the Fort Pierce Tribune. McVeigh ''came down here because he heard the Branch Davidians, the people who survived Waco, would be here,'' said a militia spokesman.

Federal agents have said McVeigh was enraged by the government's attack on the Branch Davidian compound. More than 80 cult members died in the raid on April 19, 1993 - two years to the day before the Oklahoma City bombing.

Koernke said his organization forwarded a cryptic fax to Rep. Steve Stockman's office the morning of the bombing. The fax said in part, ''Bomb threat received last week. Perpetrator unknown at this time. Oklahoma.''

The fax received at a congressman's office carried a time stamp that indicates it was sent to Koernke's organization more than an hour before the bombing. Koernke denies knowing McVeigh.