Militia Seminar Sparks Outcry : Conference: In wake of Oklahoma bombing, groups plan to protest appearance by broadcaster at a Palm Springs gathering titled ‘Taking Back Our Country.’

When a janitor from the University of Michigan was scheduled three months ago to speak here, he was mostly unknown outside the shadowy world of militias, and his appearance might have gone largely unnoticed.

Then there was the bombing in Oklahoma City.

And now that militias have become a part of the daily lexicon, there is something of an uproar that militia promoter Mark Koernke is scheduled to speak Sunday at a seminar called “Taking Back Our Country.”

Through his shortwave radio broadcasts, Koernke--known as “Mark of Michigan”--has promoted underground militias and the stockpiling of weapons, and criticized the FBI for handling bombing suspect Timothy McVeigh “as if they wanted him to be shot.”

Koernke was an initial target of FBI interest after the April 19 bombing because he sent out a fax on the bombing and had had a fleeting association with McVeigh. He has not been linked to the bombing.

Among Koernke’s expected topics Sunday: “Are there foreign troops and equipment in our country?” and “Who is our government building concentration camps for?”

Switchboard operators at the Palm Springs Hilton Resort, the site of the meeting, were pummeled with angry calls, asking how the downtown hotel would dare offer Koernke a podium.

The local chapter of the National Organization for Women prompted plans for a protest on Sunday, saying it wanted the world to know Palm Springs does not embrace Koernke’s government-conspiracy spiel. Its local members will even cut short a convention in San Diego this weekend to protest on Sunday afternoon.

Councilman Alan Seman from neighboring Rancho Mirage has also taken umbrage at Koernke’s appearance, suggesting that Koernke will soil Rancho Mirage’s image as well.

Seman said he is inviting anyone and everyone to stand with him on Sunday outside the Hilton, “hand in hand, to protest that Koernke is coming here to spread his venom.”

“We have just experienced almost 200 people dying in a disaster and it’s time for the good citizens of America to stand up and be counted and to say enough is enough and we don’t want to hear any of this,” Seman said.

Protests were lodged, too, at a Palm Springs City Council meeting Wednesday night.

The event “will be a potential public relations and economic nightmare for the city,” one speaker said. “This event is attracting many other extremists to the city.”

Is the community’s tolerance for free speech now on a shorter fuse because of the bombing? It is a tough call, Palm Springs Mayor Lloyd Maryanov said earlier Wednesday.

“There’s nothing we can do about his coming here,” Maryanov said. “As distasteful as his message might be, we rightfully believe in free speech in this country, and free assembly.

“But one thing I’d like to make clear,” Maryanov added, “is that it was not a Palm Springs group that invited him here.”

That credit goes to Tom Johns, a 43-year-old painting contractor and a leader of the Morongo Militia, which he describes as a civic group serving several nearby desert communities below the eastern slopes of the San Bernardino Mountains.

Militia members, he said, organized to make earthquake preparation plans and, “if necessary, to police the town until such time that we get proper law enforcement.” Militia members, he said, “are not a bunch of idiots who run through the woods in camouflage.”

Johns says he is smitten with Koernke’s message that a “new world order” under the banner of the United Nations is positioning itself to invade the United States, and that the U.S. government is a silent conspirator in it.

Koernke was originally invited about three months ago to speak at a gathering this weekend in Morongo, but when plans for it collapsed he asked a friend in Palm Springs to search for an alternate meeting place.

Aftab Dada, general manager of the Palm Springs Hilton, said the 450-seat ballroom was booked under the name “Constitution Party for the 1996 Presidential Elections” by the same person who booked a hotel ballroom for a 1992 presidential campaign rally for Ross Perot’s “United We Stand America.”

“We never get the details of these events--and I still haven’t been officially notified who the speakers will be,” he said. “We respect the freedom of speech. And I hope you understand, we cannot discriminate.”

Dada said he has fielded about 200 calls in recent days about the event--initially in strong opposition to Koernke’s appearance and then, as word of the outcry got out, balanced by calls in support of Koernke.

The hotel, which will be full because of a convention of ski resort operators, will augment its security measures, he said.

Johns promises the event will be civilized, and says it will be attended by “dentists, judges, lawyers, law enforcement officers and the guy down the street.” Tickets cost $12. Other speakers will include San Diego “patriot singer” Steve Vaus and Ted L. Gunderson, a retired 28-year-veteran of the FBI, Johns said.

“If anybody’s going to be causing trouble, it will be the (critics), not us,” Johns said. “This is not some terrorists’ convention. We just want to get information out to the general public that is not readily available through the media. And we invite people to come in and listen to what’s being said and ask some questions,” he said.

Seman said he will ask his own Rancho Mirage City Council colleagues today to go on record opposing Koernke’s appearance and said he sympathizes with vacationers headed for Palm Springs this weekend.

“Wouldn’t it be awful,” he said, “to come out here from Chicago, stay at the Hilton, be sitting by the pool reading a book and find the lobby filled with guys in camouflage?”