Paranoia as Patriotism:
Mark Koernke is an influential personality in the
militia movement who has recently come to the attention of the general
public in connection with the investigation of the Oklahoma
City bombing. According to press reports, he was a friend,
perhaps even a mentor, of Timothy McVeigh, the man accused of
the bombing, and was an associate of the Nichols brothers,
also being held by authorities - Terry, accused of abetting
the bominb, and James as a material witness. Additionally, it
has been reported that Koernke sent a fax to Rep. Steve
Stockman of Texas, referring to the bombing.
Referring to himself as "Mark from Michigan," Koernke
describes himself as a former U.S. Army Intelligence Officer
and Counter-Intelligence Analyst. He has appeared at
'survivalist' conventions with militia extremists and
so-called "patriots." Koernke has spoken across the country
warning of a government plot to take away the rights of
American citizens, and he has produced a number of video tapes
detailing these supposed Federal conspiracies including
America in Peril, A Call to Arms, and Equipping for the
New World Order. An advertisement in a Militia of Montana
newsletter, states that the second of these tapes "brings
forth new evidence and brand new atrocities with actual photos
of concentration camps in America."
A University of Michigan janitor living in the small town of
Dexter, Michigan, Koernke calls for armed defiance of the
government. Until April 28, he broadcase a radio show five
days a week called "The Intelligence Report," affiliated with
the "Voice of Liberty" program on shortwave station WWCR
(World Wide Christian Radio), based in Nashville, Tennessee.
WWCR took the program off the air after Koernke suggested that
Federal authorities were setting up McVeigh for assassination
and that the government itself might have committed the
bombing. (Anti-Defamation League, 21)
The
original plaintext version
of this file is available via
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Far-Right Influences on the Militia Movement
Mark Koernke