The African-American Labor Force in the Recovery

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While the unemployment rate for African Americans fell substantially in January to 13.6 percent, it remains significantly higher than the 8.5 percent rate of November 2007, just prior to the recession. Aggregate numbers show that the African-American community as a whole has exhibited poorer labor market outcomes than other races even prior to the recession and during the recovery, demonstrating that they often face different and greater challenges. By breaking down the data by age, gender, education, and other criteria, this report examines in greater detail the trends in employment and unemployment among African Americans and shows how they have been faring in the economic recovery. The "Looking Forward" section at the end of the report discusses the President's 2013 Budget and highlights various ways in which Department of Labor programs have helped to address the challenges faced by African Americans in the labor market.

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Blacks in the Labor Force at a Glance

African Americans made up 11.6 percent of the U.S. labor force — those employed or looking for work — in 2011.¹ African Americans have comprised a gradually growing share of the U.S. labor force over time, rising from 10.9 percent in 1991. Overall, in 2011, 18 million Blacks were employed or looking for work, representing 61.4 percent of all African Americans, somewhat less than the 64.1 participation rate for all Americans.
In 2011, about half of Blacks aged 16 and older had a job, and 18.0 percent of those employed worked part-time.² Blacks are the only racial or ethnic group for whom women represent a larger share of the employed than do men - more than half (53.8 percent) of employed Blacks in 2011 were women, compared to 46.0 percent among employed Whites. Nonetheless, employed black women still earn less than employed black men - black women earn roughly $0.91 to every dollar earned by black men. While the wage gap among Blacks is smaller than that for Whites, this is largely driven by the fact that African-American men face lower wages compared to men in other race groups in the economy. Black men employed full time earned on average $653 per week in 2011, 76.3 percent of the average salary earned by white men. By contrast, black women earn on average $595 per week or 84.6 percent of the average salary earned by white women.³ While the gap between black and white men fell substantially during the 1990s due to increased occupational desegregation, in the last few years the gap in earnings remained stable throughout the recent recession and recovery period.⁴
More than a quarter of employed black workers aged 25 or older have earned a college degree, a share that exceeds that for Hispanics⁵ but continues to trail that for Whites. While black workers continue to trail Whites in educational attainment, the number of African Americans with a college degree has been growing faster. In the past decade, the number of black workers with a college degree has increased by over a quarter, compared to a fifth among White workers.
Black workers are more likely to be employed in the public sector than are either their white or Hispanic counterparts. In 2011, nearly 20 percent of employed Blacks worked for state, local, or federal government compared to 14.2 percent of Whites and 10.4 percent of Hispanics. Blacks are less likely than Hispanics and nearly as likely as Whites to work in the private sector, not including the self-employed.⁶ Few Blacks are self-employed — only 3.8 percent reported being self-employed in 2011 — making them almost half as likely to be self-employed as Whites (7.2 percent).
The average unemployment rate for Blacks in 2011 was 15.8 percent, compared to 7.9 percent for Whites, and 11.5 percent for Hispanics. Historically, Blacks have had persistently higher unemployment rates than the other major racial and ethnic groups. In addition, the increase in the black unemployment rate during the recession was larger than that for other races partly because workers with less education are particularly hard hit during recessions. Moreover, the unemployment rate for Blacks was slower to fall after the official end of the recession. The slower recovery for African Americans in the labor market has been partly the result of government layoffs after the official end of the recession. Blacks have been more vulnerable to the drastic layoffs in government in the past two years because they make up a disproportionate share of public sector workers. Moreover, with the exception of health and education, Blacks are under-represented in the sectors that have experienced the greatest job growth during the recovery, including manufacturing and professional and business services.
In addition, once unemployed, Blacks are less likely to find jobs and tend to stay unemployed for longer periods of time. Blacks remained unemployed longer than Whites or Hispanics in 2011, with a median duration of unemployment of 27.0 weeks (compared to 19.7 for Whites and 18.5 for Hispanics). Nearly half (49.5 percent) of all unemployed Blacks were unemployed 27 weeks or longer in 2011, compared to 41.7 percent of unemployed Whites and 39.9 percent of unemployed Hispanics. Once a worker is unemployed for a prolonged period, it becomes harder to find a new job. Job search becomes harder for such an individual because the worker may not have the networks of employed friends and family to refer them to jobs and because they may become disconnected and depressed the longer they remain unemployed.⁷ Also, job search becomes more difficult without income support, as an unemployed person may not have the resources to afford transportation, seek information and even afford clothes for interviews.⁸ Finally, as the pool of applicants grows larger, employers sometimes use employment status, including unemployment duration, and credit ratings as ways to screen out candidates even if these are poor screens and these candidates may be qualified for the jobs.⁹
Recently there have been some encouraging signs for African Americans. The unemployment rate for Blacks has been trending down since summer 2011. In January 2012, the unemployment rate for Blacks was 13.6 percent; down 3.1 percentage points from the peak of 16.7 percent in August 2011.¹⁰ Continuing employment gains in private sector health care jobs since the end of the recession have helped to bring the unemployment rate down for Blacks, as this industry has a large share of African-American workers. Over the past year ending in January 2012, Blacks have seen strong job growth in a diverse range of industries, including financial activities, professional and business services, and education and health services. African Americans are also benefiting from the slowing pace of job losses in state and local government which have disproportionately affected them.
Table 1: Unemployment, employment, and earnings characteristics by race and Hispanic ethnicity¹, 2011 annual averages

Characteristics of the employed	Blacks	Whites	Hispanics
% Employed (employment -population ratio among those 16 and older)	51.7	59.4	58.9
% Usually working part time	18.0	19.9	18.9
% Women (age 16 and older)	53.8	46.0	40.6
% College graduates (age 25 and older)	26.5	36.8	16.7
% Working in the private sector (wage and salary workers)	76.9	78.5	83.7
% Working in the public sector	19.3	14.2	10.4
% Self-employed (unincorporated)2	3.8	7.2	5.8
Usual Median Weekly Earnings
Total	$615	$775	$549
Men	$653	$856	$571
Women	$595	$703	$518
Characteristics of the Unemployed
Unemployment rate	15.8	7.9	11.5
% Women (age 16 and older)	46.9	43.0	41.9
Median duration of unemployment in weeks	27.0	19.7	18.5
% Long-term unemployed (27 weeks or more)	49.5	41.7	39.9
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Current Population Survey 1Persons whose ethnicity is identified as Hispanic or Latino may be of any race.  Those identified as white or black includes those Hispanics who selected white or black when queried about their race. 2Self-employed refer to self-employed workers whose businesses are unincorporated.

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Periods of High Unemployment

In January 2007, the year the recession began, the unemployment rate for black workers was 7.9 percent, compared to 4.2 percent for Whites and 5.8 percent for Hispanics. By January 2009, the unemployment rates had climbed to 7.1 percent for Whites, 12.7 percent for Blacks and 10.0 percent for Hispanics. By the end of 2010, the unemployment rate for Blacks had risen more than for either Whites or Hispanics.
Unemployment for the nation peaked at 10 percent in October 2009, while the unemployment rate for Blacks continued to rise before peaking at 16.7 percent in August 2011 (Chart 1). In comparison, the unemployment rate for Whites peaked along with the national rate in October 2009 at 9.3 percent. Hispanic unemployment peaked at 13.1 percent in November 2010.
Chart 1: Unemployment Rate for African Americans, Hispanics and Whites
(seasonally adjusted monthly data, January 2007 - January 2012)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey
Chart 1: Text only
In recent months, there have been signs that African Americans have begun to benefit from the nation's economic recovery. The national unemployment rate in January 2012 was 8.3 percent, well below the nation's average unemployment rate in 2010 of 9.6 percent. Although their unemployment rate started to decline later, African Americans also saw improvement over that time. The black unemployment rate in January 2012 was 13.6 percent, down from the 2010 average of 16.0 percent, and a little lower than February 2009's rate of 13.7 percent.
Chart 2 shows the seasonally-adjusted monthly unemployment rate for black men, women, and youth (aged 16-19). As shown in the chart, the unemployment rate among adult black men (aged 20 and over) has risen considerably more than for adult black women (aged 20 and over), creating an unemployment rate gap that grew throughout the recession and only narrowed in January 2012. In 2007, the unemployment rate gap averaged 1.2 percentage points. By 2009, the average unemployment rate gap between adult black men and women had expanded to 4.8 percentage points, before narrowing slightly over the course of 2010 and 2011 to 3.5 percentage points. In January 2012, the gender unemployment gap was virtually eliminated. Adult black men had an unemployment rate of 12.7 percent compared to a rate of 12.6 percent among adult black women.
Chart 2: Unemployment Rate among Black Adult Men, Adult Women, and Youth
(seasonally adjusted monthly data, January 2007 - January 2012)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey
Chart 2: Text only
Across all races and ethnic groups, the unemployment rate for youth (aged 16-19) is much higher than that for adults. As Chart 2 illustrates, this is also true among Blacks. The unemployment rate for black youth reached a high of 49.1 percent in November 2009 and as of January 2012 had fallen to 38.5 percent. Not only has the unemployment rate remained high, but a large number of black teens are no longer in the labor force - either working or looking for work — which explains some of the drop in the unemployment rate. In 2007, black teens participated in the labor force at a rate of 30.3 percent. By 2011, that rate had declined to 24.9 percent. Labor force participation of black men and women aged 20-54 declined by 2.3 percentage points from 78.2 percent in 2007 to 75.9 percent in 2011, while participation among older black workers (aged 55 and older) increased by 1.3 percentage points — 35.3 percent in 2007 to 36.6 percent in 2011.
Some of this decline in labor force participation among black teens indeed reflects an increase in the proportion of black teens enrolled in school. Among 16-19 year-olds, 85.4 percent were enrolled in school in October 2011, compared to 80.7 percent in 2007, the year the recession began.¹¹ The rate of school enrollment also increased for Blacks aged 20-24. In October 2011, 34.9 percent of this cohort was enrolled in school compared to 32.8 percent in October 2007.
One factor that may partially explain why black labor force outcomes lag behind those of their white counterparts is their lower educational attainment. However, as Chart 3 illustrates, the role of education in explaining the unemployment disparity faced by African Americans is very complicated. African-American unemployment rates are higher than those for Whites at every education level.
Despite racial difference in unemployment rates by education level, the link between greater educational attainment and improved employment outcomes remains strong for all racial and ethnic groups, including African Americans. Additionally, the unemployment gap between Blacks and Whites is smaller for those with more education. Unemployment rates for African Americans were lowest among those who attained a bachelor's degree or higher. For instance, Blacks with at least a bachelor's degree had an unemployment rate of 7.1 percent (compared to 3.9 percent for Whites) whereas Blacks with some college or an associate's degree had an unemployment rate of 13.1 percent (compared to 7.0 percent for Whites). Unemployment rates are higher for those with fewer years of schooling. Blacks with only a high school diploma had an unemployment rate of 15.5 percent (compared to 8.4 percent for Whites), and Blacks with less than a high school diploma experienced a 24.6 percent unemployment rate (compared to 12.7 percent for Whites with less than a high school diploma).
Chart 3: Unemployment Rate for Blacks and Whites aged 25 and older, by Educational Attainment, 2011 Annual Average

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey
Chart 3: Text only
Another factor that may explain some of the lag in labor force outcomes for Blacks is that they are more likely to live in economically depressed areas with fewer opportunities for employment. Living in these areas means that Blacks live farther away from jobs and are surrounded by other unemployed persons who are less likely to refer them to jobs. Over the three years from 2008-2010, unemployed African Americans were 60 percent more likely than non-Blacks to live in a local area with double-digit unemployment rates (See table 2). African Americans also have longer commute times than do non-Blacks, indicating that they are less likely to find jobs near their homes. From 2008-2010, African Americans averaged commute times of 27.7 minutes compared to 24.6 minutes among Whites. The difference remains even when factoring in public transit usage. Additionally, African Americans are more likely than Whites to face extreme commutes of over an hour (10.3 percent vs. 7.3 percent).¹²A number of studies have found that weak and negative employment growth in areas where Blacks reside and little access to jobs (as measured by travel times) can explain part of the differences in the black-white unemployment differential.¹³
Table 2: Distribution of Unemployed by Local Area, averaged 2008-2010 estimates, in percentages

	Black/African- American	Non-Black
Share of Unemployed residing in Local Areas with unemployment rates of under 10 percent	37.1	60.8
Share of Unemployed residing in Local Areas with unemployment rates of 10 percent or greater	62.9	39.2
Share of Unemployed residing in Local Areas with unemployment rates of 20 percent or greater	5.9	0.3
Source:  American Community Survey, 2008-2010 Public Use Microdata Files.  Local area is defined as a Census Bureau Public Use Microdata Area (PUMA). A PUMA is a statistical geographic area defined for the tabulation and dissemination of decennial census PUMS and ACS data. While variation in the physical size and shape of PUMAs may complicate their use in defining local areas, this is the closest to a definition of a local area one can construct given publicly available data. Obtaining information for Census tracts requires special permission from Census.  http://www.census.gov/geo/puma/puma2010.html.

Unemployment varies across the United States and the unemployment rate of Blacks, like that of other Americans, differs depending on the state in which they live. Blacks face the highest unemployment rates in Wisconsin (25.0 percent), Nevada (22.1), West Virginia (21.5), Oregon (21.3) and New Mexico (20.8), while those facing the lowest rates are in Utah (2.5), New Hampshire (8.7), Maryland (10.3), Alaska (10.3) and Massachusetts (11.0).
The map at the end of this report highlights the states where the largest numbers of unemployed black workers reside. As one would expect, states with the largest black populations had very large numbers of unemployed black workers. Overall in 2011, Florida (232,000), Georgia (220,000), California (208,000), New York (207,000), and Texas (192,000) had the most unemployed Blacks. The unemployment rates for Blacks in these states were 17.1 percent (Florida), 15.8 percent (Georgia), 19.6 percent (California), 13.8 percent (New York), and 13.4 percent (Texas)

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Employment Data

As Chart 4 illustrates, 2011 employment rates for African-American men and women, aged 20 and older, remain below pre-recession levels. Overall, black men and white men are employed at higher rates than are black women and white women. However, employment rates have fallen much more sharply for men than for women in either racial group since the 2007-2009 recession began. In recent months, there have been signs of improvement in employment rates for black men. The share of black men with a job has risen from its May 2011 low of 56 percent to 59.7 percent in January 2012. That is the highest employment rate since February 2009.
Chart 4: Employment to Population ratio by sex for Whites and Blacks, aged 20 and older
(seasonally adjusted, monthly data, January 2007 - January 2012)

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey
Chart 4: Text only
During the deepest part of the downturn, black employment took the largest hit in manufacturing, financial activities, education and health services, transportation and warehousing, and construction. Together these industries employed nearly 1 million fewer Blacks in 2009 than they did in 2007. The employment situation among African Americans has improved in recent months. The number of employed African Americans has risen by 700,000 over the year ending in January 2012. In that time growth was widespread, with financial activities (+177,000), professional and business services (+160,000), and education and health services (+106,000) accounting for the largest gains. African Americans have also benefited from the slowing pace of job losses among state and local governments. Public sector employment trends are particularly important to Blacks as they are 30 percent more likely than non-Blacks to work in that sector.
As Table 3 shows, employment in the health and social assistance industry is projected by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) to grow by 3.0 percent annually on average between 2010 and 2020, resulting in 5.6 million additional jobs in this sector by 2020. Black workers are in a good position to take advantage of many of the growing jobs in this industry, particularly as home health care aides are expected to grow by 69 percent by 2020. African Americans have a strong tradition of working in the health and social assistance industry. In 2010, they composed 16 percent of the industry's employment, well above their share across the total economy.
A challenge will be to assist more African Americans to obtain careers in the professional, scientific and technical services industry, which is expected to grow by 2.1 million additional jobs from 2010 to 2020. In 2011, Blacks were under-represented in this industry, comprising only 5.9 percent of these workers. In general, Blacks are under-represented in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematical (STEM) occupations accounting for about 8 percent or less of jobs in computer and mathematical occupations (6.9 percent), life, physical, and social science occupations (7.4 percent), and architecture and engineering occupations (5.2 percent) in 2011.
Table 3: Industries with largest expected employment growth, BLS Employment Projections 2010-2020

Industry	Annual average rate of change 2010-20201	Blacks as a percent of total employed by industry in 20112
Health and social assistance	3.0%	16.0%
Construction	2.9%	8.4 %
Professional, scientific and technical services	2.6%	5.9%
Education services	2.3%	10.7%
Total employment	1.3%	10.8%
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) 1Employment Projections presented here are based on Current Employment Statistics data. The projections are found at http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/ecopro.pdf.  Released February 1, 2012. 2These data are 2011 annual averages from the Current Population Survey.

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Occupational Safety and Health

The number of fatal injuries among black workers was down 9 percent in 2010 after a decline of 21 percent in 2009, according to data from the BLS.^{14 15} Since 2007, fatal work injuries among black workers have declined by more than a third (37 percent). While some of this decline is due to fewer Blacks working compared to 2007, the positive trend holds even when controlling for the decline in working hours. From 2007 to 2010, the fatality rate among African Americans fell from 4.2 to 2.8 per 100,000 full-time equivalent workers. This exceeded the decline among Whites and Hispanics in the same time period. Additionally, African Americans had the lowest workplace fatality rate among those groups in 2010.¹⁶
Black workers experience high numbers of non-fatal injuries and illnesses in several occupations that are known to have high injury rates including nursing aides, orderlies, and attendants; non-construction laborers, and truck drivers.¹⁷ In 2010, African Americans accounted for 12.0 percent of all private sector nonfatal occupation injuries and illness that involved days away from work.¹⁸ That rate exceeded their prevalence among all private sector wage and salary workers (10.6 percent). Despite being at high risk for occupational injuries, the number of injuries and illnesses decreased 7 percent for black or African-American workers in 2010.

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Looking Forward

The economic recovery to date has improved employment prospects for all Americans. However, more needs to be done to get African Americans back to work. The Department is working alongside other agencies, including the Department of Education and the Department of Housing and Urban Development, in the Obama Administration to address the challenging labor market conditions facing black workers. In particular, the Department and other agencies introduced programs to increase the skills of African Americans, encourage the creation of jobs in sectors and areas that reach African-American workers, and strengthen enforcement actions that address discriminatory practices.
Getting America Back to Work: The Department of Labor is working to get America back to work by providing job seekers with income support, employment services and the skills necessary to land the good-paying jobs of the future and by linking employers looking to hire with Americans looking to work.

• Between October 2010 and September 2011, nearly 3.7 million participants served by the Department's Wagner-Peyser program, which provides employment services, were African-American. This figure represents approximately 19 percent of total participants served by this program, which is greater than the African-American share of the population.
• Of the 2.5 million Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Adult and Dislocated Worker program participants who received staff-assisted services from July 2010 through June 2011, more than 21 percent were African-American. Of the 1,672,000 individuals who exited these programs from April 2010 through March 2011 after receiving staff-assisted services, over 340,000 were African-American. Of the African Americans who exited these programs between October 2009 and September 2010 and were unemployed when they entered the programs, nearly half or 170,000 began employment within the quarter after their exit.
• As of September 30, 2011, 34,558 African Americans have been served by the Department's Community Based Job Training grants (nearly 16 percent of all 222,789 participants), and 23,636 African Americans (25 percent of all 95,373 participants) have been served through the Department's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act High Growth and Emerging Industry grants.
• Between October 2010 and September 2011, the Department's Trade Adjustment Assistance program served 196,020 U.S. workers impacted by foreign trade; 31,167 (15 percent) of these participants were African-American.
• The National Farmworker Jobs Program provides funding to community-based organizations and public agencies to assist migrant and seasonal farmworkers and their families attain greater economic stability. Between July 2010 and June 2011, 1,114 (nearly 6 percent) of the 18,920 participants were African-American.
• As of September 30, 2011, the Reintegration of Ex-Offenders programs have assisted over 31,482 participants. Of these, 18,172 (58 percent) are African Americans.
• The Department's Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD) is designed to fund and rigorously test employment programs targeting non-custodial parents and individuals recently released from prison. Program services include academic and occupational skills assessments, job training, and temporary subsidized employment (transitional jobs) with active mentoring and oversight, followed by assistance in obtaining and retaining unsubsidized jobs. Seven organizations were competitively selected based on past experience in providing transitional (subsidized) jobs and experience with their respective target groups. The demonstration sites are located in urban areas with large numbers of unemployed African Americans: New York City; Syracuse, NY; Atlanta, GA; Ft. Worth, TX; Indianapolis, IN; Milwaukee, WI; and San Francisco, CA. This demonstration began in late 2011 and is scheduled to end in late 2014.
• The regular federal-state Unemployment Insurance system (UI) served approximately 2.3 million African Americans (23.2 percent of all 9.9 million regular UI claimants) from October 2010 to September 2011.
• Approximately 1.1 million African Americans, 23.2 percent of all 4.7 million Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) claimants, benefited from the extension of EUC benefits through the end of Fiscal Year 2011. Close to 4 million EUC claimants (of which close to 1 million would be African-American) are projected to benefit from the extension that was passed in February 2012.
• The Department's Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships has made a concerted effort to further extend programs and opportunities to the African-American community through extensive outreach to African-American communities and congregations. This outreach has included a new project to work with faith-based and community-based job clubs or career ministries that provide a range of occupational and emotional supports to the unemployed, especially the long-term unemployed. The Center for Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships estimates that between 15% to 20% of these job clubs serve African-American unemployed workers.

Investing Significantly in Employment Opportunities for African-American Youth:

• The WIA Youth program (for individuals aged 14 — 21) also assisted African Americans by placing nearly 22,000 individuals into employment or education programs between October 2009 and September 2010; the program served more than 93,000 African-American participants (35 percent of all 263,000 participants) from July 2010 to June 2011.
• Programs such as YouthBuild and Job Corps are intended to provide job training and educational opportunities for low-income at-risk youth. As of September 2011, a total of 11,618 African-American youth have been served in YouthBuild, representing nearly 55 percent of program participants. From July 2010 to June 2011, 29,937 Jobs Corps participants, over 50 percent of all participants served, were African-American.
• Reintegration of Ex-Offenders Youth projects served 6,990 participants, of whom 71 percent were African-American, from July 2010 through June 2011.

Training African Americans for Jobs in High-Growth and Emerging Industries:

• Winners of recently announced grants to train workers for good jobs in high-growth industries include historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other entities that have historically served African Americans.
  • In October 2011, the Urban League of Atlanta won a $4.5 million grant to train 125 workers for information technology (IT) jobs in partnership with Clark Atlanta University (an HBCU) and a local IT employer who has committed to hire every participant who completes the training and obtains a credential.
  • In September 2011, a consortium of 10 South Carolina educational institutions, including Denmark Technical College (an HBCU), won a grant of nearly $20 million to establish 37 new on-line courses leading to industry-recognized credentials and degrees for emerging technology-based jobs in key industries, including manufacturing, engineering, industrial maintenance, and transportation and logistics.

Providing For Your Family and Keeping What You Earn:

• In Fiscal Year 2011, the Wage and Hour Division (WHD) collected $224,844,870 in back wages for this nation's workers, which is the largest amount collected in a single fiscal year in the Division's history. These back wages, collected on behalf of 275,472 workers, including almost 90,000 who had not been paid the minimum wage for all of the hours they had worked, demonstrate that the WHD has become a stronger, more effective law enforcement agency.
  
  In Fiscal Year 2011, WHD collected over $52 million in back wages for more than 98,000 employees in priority low-wage industries alone, which employ significant proportions of vulnerable workers, including African Americans. These industries include janitorial, health care, agriculture, child care, restaurants, garment, hotel/motel, and temporary help.
  
  To achieve a more ongoing presence in communities with vulnerable workers, WHD has also hired new Community Outreach and Resource Planning Specialists (CORPS)to work in WHD District Offices. These officers maintain lines of communication at the local level; engage partners in dialogue about local industry practices and labor concerns; provide training and resources to advocates and other stakeholders on wage and hour laws; and provide recommendations to WHD on how the Agency can better serve workers at the local level.

Enforcing Non-Discrimination Requirements:

• DOL's Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFCCP) is responsible for enforcing affirmative action and non-discrimination obligations of federal contractors and subcontractors.¹⁹ Nearly one-in-four American workers is employed by a company that does business with the Federal government, giving OFCCP a broad purview to enforce equal employment opportunity laws across the American labor force.
  
  In Fiscal Year 2011, OFCCP successfully resolved 134 cases of employment discrimination affecting women, minorities, people with disabilities and protected veterans. In total, OFCCP negotiated over $12 million in financial remedies for victims of discrimination and recovered more than 1,400 potential job offers for affected workers. Twenty-three cases specifically involved African Americans (up 44% from last year) resulting in over $2 million in back pay (an increase of 33% over last year).

The President's 2013 Budget: The FY 2013 budget is built around the idea that our country does best when everyone gets a fair shot, does their fair share, and plays by the same rules. Because unemployment among African Americans remains unacceptably high and to provide security for African-American families, the President's 2013 Budget would:

• Invest in low-income youth and adults: The President is proposing a new $12.5 billion Pathways Back to Work Fund to provide hundreds of thousands of low-income youth and adults with opportunities to work and to achieve needed training in growth industries
  • Support for Summer and Year-Round Jobs for Youth: The Recovery Act provided approximately 370,000 summer job opportunities through the public workforce investment system to young people in the summers of 2009 and 2010. Such programs not only provided young people with their first paycheck, but taught them life-long employment skills. Building on this success, the new Pathways Back to Work Fund will provide states with support for summer job programs for low-income youth in 2012, and year-round employment for economically disadvantaged young adults. This is particularly important for African-American youth who are experiencing an unacceptably high rate of unemployment of over 40%.
  • Targeting Low-Income, Long-Term Unemployed Adults: This effort would connect the long-term unemployed, low-income adults to subsidized employment and work-based training opportunities. It builds off the successful TANF Emergency Contingency Fund wage subsidy program that supported 260,000 jobs through the recovery. This measure would be particularly helpful to unemployed African Americans, nearly half (49.5 percent) of whom have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks.
• Revitalize Distressed Urban Neighborhoods: The President's 2013 Budget provides $150 million for the Choice Neighborhoods initiative to continue transformative investments in high-poverty neighborhoods where distressed HUD-assisted public and privately owned housing is located, a $30 million increase from the 2012 enacted level. The Budget would provide grants that primarily fund the preservation, rehabilitation and transformation of HUD-assisted public and privately-owned multifamily housing.
• Put People Back to Work Rehabilitating Homes, Businesses and Communities: The President is proposing a $15 billion series of policies to help connect Americans looking for work in distressed communities with the work needed to re-purpose residential and commercial properties, creating jobs and stabilizing neighborhoods. Known as Project Rebuild, this approach will not only create construction jobs for African Americans who were disproportionately affected by the loss of jobs in the construction sector, but will help reduce blight and crime and stabilize housing prices in areas hardest hit by the housing crisis.
• Target Investments to Modernize Schools Serving Low-Income Students: The President proposed a $30 billion investment in education infrastructure that will modernize at least 35,000 public schools and community colleges — investments that will create jobs while improving classrooms and upgrading our schools and community colleges to meet 21st Century needs. Funds could be used for a range of emergency repair and renovation projects, and modernization efforts to build new science and computer labs and to upgrade technology. These investments would not only help black workers get back jobs in construction, but help African-American communities get access to better education and help the next generation of African-American workers.
• Prevent Layoffs of Teachers, Cops and Firefighters: The President proposed to invest $30 billion to prevent layoffs of teachers, while supporting the hiring and keeping of cops and firefighters on the job. Resources to prevent additional layoffs in the state and local government would be key to helping African-American workers who are disproportionately employed in the public sector and who have been hit hard by job losses in the public sector.
• Extend Unemployment Insurance for the Long Term Unemployed: Unemployment insurance for those unemployed over 27 weeks was initially extended through February 2012 but was recently extended through the rest of the year, which will help 1 million African Americans. The new extension provides additional reemployment services to the long-term unemployed, which is key for black unemployed workers, of whom nearly half (49.5 percent) have been unemployed for more than 27 weeks. This extension also provides funding for a self-employment assistance program that would allow UI claimants to start their own businesses while receiving UI benefits.
• Connect State and Community Colleges with Businesses: The President proposed an $8 billion Community College to Career Fund that will help forge new partnerships between community colleges and businesses to train two million workers for good-paying jobs in high-growth and high-demand industries and build the skills of American workers.

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Chart 5: Black Unemployment by State — 2011 Annual Averages

Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, 2011 annual average data
*Due to small sample sizes, unemployment rates not available for: Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Montana.
Chart 5: Text only

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Footnotes

¹The Office of Management and Budget defines Black or African American as an official racial category pertaining to persons having origins in any of the Black racial groups of Africa. The terms Black and African American are used interchangeably in this report. Also, since 2003, BLS allows individuals to identify themselves as more than one race. Persons who selected more than one race category are not included in the employment and unemployment data for any single racial category, but are included in the estimates of total US employment and unemployment.
²BLS identifies part-time workers as those who usually worked 1 to 34 hours.
³While the black-white wage differences can be partly explained by differences in the observable characteristics of different workers, a substantial differential remains even if comparing individuals with identical characteristics except for race. See, e.g., Joseph Altonji and Rebecca Blank (1999), "Race and Gender in the Labor market," Handbook of Labor Economics, Vol 3C, pp. 3143-3259 and William Darity and Patrick L. Mason (1998), "Evidence on Discrimination in Employment: Codes of Color, Codes of Gender," Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 12 (Spring), pp.63-90.
⁴For a discussion of how occupational shifts helped to reduce wage gaps, see Kenneth Couch and Mary Daly (2002), "Black-White Wage Inequality in the 1990s: A Decade of Progress," Economic Inquiry, 40(1): 31-41.
⁵Hispanics who select black or white when identifying race are included in the black or white category as well as the Hispanic category. Beginning with 1993, BLS data on Blacks refers to people who solely identify as Black. People who respond as Black and another race — white, Asian, Pacific Islander or Native Hawaiian — are not reflected in the "Black" data.
⁶Self-employed refer to self-employed workers whose businesses are unincorporated.
⁷See, e.g., Harry Holzer (1987), "Informal Job Search and Black Youth Unemployment," American Economic Review, 77(3): 446-452.
⁸See, e.g., Silvio Rendon (2007), "Does Wealth Explain Black-White Differences in Early Employment Careers?" Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 25(4): 484-500.
⁹See, e.g., Adriana Kugler and Gilles Saint-Paul (2004), "How do Firing Costs Affects Workers Flows in a World with Adverse Selection?" Journal of Labor Economics, 22(3): 553-584.
¹⁰In January of every year, BLS makes an adjustment to the population control used for that year's estimates in the Current Population Survey (CPS). This change complicates direct comparisons of published data between years but not within a single year. However, even after removing the effect of this population control change, the unemployment rate for Blacks fell between December 2011 and January 2012.
¹¹October data are used here because that is the month when students are usually enrolled in school regardless of the type of school or school calendar.
¹²Office of the Chief Economist calculations based on data from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS) 2008-2010 Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS).
¹³See, e.g., Steven Raphael (1998), "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis and Black Youth Joblessness," Journal of Urban Economics, 43(1): 79-111 and Harry Holzer (1991), "The Spatial Mismatch Hypothesis: What Has the Evidence Shown?" Urban Studies, 28(1): 105-122.
¹⁴Fatal injury data for 2010 are preliminary, while data for prior years are revised and final.
¹⁵Data presented here are for black non-Hispanics.
¹⁶http://www.bls.gov/iif/oshwc/cfoi/cfoi_rates_2010hb.pdf
¹⁷This is based upon those fatalities for which there is a race or ethnicity reported. Race and Ethnicity is underreported for many fatalities. Underreporting may bias estimates.
¹⁸This is based upon those nonfatal occupational injuries and illnesses for which there is a race or ethnicity reported. Race and Ethnicity was not reported for 34.8 percent of private sector injures in 2010. Underreporting may bias estimates.
¹⁹In addition to OFCCP, other agencies outside of the Department enforce non-discrimination requirements. Namely, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is responsible for enforcing federal laws that protect job applicants and employees from discrimination because of the person's race or other characteristics or because the person was involved in an employment discrimination investigation or lawsuit.

Unemployment dips to 7.3 percent, but only 63% of Americans are in labor force

By Ylan Q. Mui and Amrita Jayakumar,September 06, 2013

View Photo Gallery - : Where are the best hunting grounds for job seekers?: If you’re on…

Americans are participating in the workforce at the lowest level in 35 years, according to government data released Friday, as lackluster job growth fails to offset the droves of people who have given up looking for work.
According to the Labor Department, the economy added a disappointing 169,000 jobs in August. In addition, the government lowered its estimate of the number of jobs created in June and July by 74,000 positions.
The grinding pace of recovery has hollowed out the workforce. Government data showed that only 63.2 percent of working-age Americans have a job or are looking for one, the lowest proportion since 1978. Nearly 90 million people are now considered out of the labor force, up 1.7 million from August 2012.

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“We just don’t see this consistent, strong job market that’s really going to entice people to go back into it,” said Michael Evangelist, policy analyst at the National Employment Law Project. “You don’t want people falling out of the labor force where they’re not able to contribute and not able to find work.”

Carol Petty, 54, is among those hanging in the balance. She lost her job as a paralegal in Nevada last summer and has struggled to find work since. Petty moved to California to be near her family and hoped she would find a better job market. She sends out as many as 10 résumés a week and knows she is unlikely to find another position that pays her old salary of $55,100 a year.
She said others in her position have given up seeking work. The question for Petty — and the broader economy — is how long people like her will be able to hold on.
“I’m just so stubborn,” she said. “I will do anything.”
There are demographic trends underlying the decline in the labor force. For much of the past generation, growing numbers of working women boosted its size, but that effect has leveled off. Meanwhile, the first wave of baby boomers is reaching retirement age, while younger workers are staying in school longer before looking for their first job.
Many economists believe those shifts cannot fully explain the size of the decline. Research released this spring by two Federal Reserve economists showed that states with the largest drops in unemployment also had bigger declines in the labor force, suggesting the slow pace of recovery is the culprit.
Before the recession, the government studied population changes and forecast that the participation rate would dip by 0.3 percentage points from 2007 to 2012, according to the paper. Instead, it fell by 2.5 percentage points.

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Amanda Dean has almost reached the end of the line. The 30-year-old North Carolina resident has a master’s degree in social work, but has never found a job in her field. She was laid off from her last job, as an office manager, in January.
Her state unemployment benefits ran out in July, and she isn’t eligible for an extension. She doesn’t qualify for food stamps, either. Dean’s parents have been helping pay her mortgage and other bills.
Dean said she has thought about dropping out of the workforce altogether, perhaps going back to school for a business degree. But she realized she couldn’t afford it.
“I have not given up,” she said. “That’s not an option.”
Economists had hoped that the recovery would pick up steam during the second half of this year. But it’s been the decline in the labor force rather than robust hiring that has pushed the unemployment rate to a deceptively low 7.3 percent.
Bob Funk, chief executive of Express Employment Professionals, a staffing firm, said that many businesses remain reluctant to bring on permanent workers. Typically, about two-thirds of his firm’s temporary employees are hired by the companies at which they are placed. Now only about half are kept, he estimates.
“That’s primarily due to the uncertainty out there,” Funk said, citing new health insurance requirements as well as looming fiscal fights in Washington. “They don’t know how to manage their business as well when they don’t know what their costs are going to be.”
Washington remains a wild card for the economy. Congress must agree on at least a short-term spending plan by October or risk shutting down the federal government. In addition, the nation may not be able to pay all its bills unless lawmakers agree to raise the debt ceiling before a mid-October deadline.
In a remarks Friday while at the Group of 20 summit in Russia, President Obama said he is “determined that the world has confidence in the full faith and credit of the United States.” He also touted gains in manufacturing jobs and new regulations aimed at fortifying the nation’s banks.
“We’ve put more people back to work, but we’ve also cleared away the rubble of crisis and laid the foundation for stronger and more durable economic growth,” he said.
Still, the recovery may not be strong enough to stand on its own. The Federal Reserve has been pumping $85 billion a month into the economy, but will consider reducing that amount when officials convene for their regular meeting this month.
On Friday, Kansas City Fed President Esther L. George called for scaling back the program by $15 billion. In a separate speech, Chicago Fed President Charles L. Evans was more circumspect, but acknowledged the data has been murky.
Fed Chairman Ben S. Bernanke has said that the central bank will begin paring its stimulus this year, and many investors expect it will start this month. But Jared Bernstein, senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said he believes the August jobs report is evidence that the economy still needs the Fed’s help.
“This is the time to be thinking more about Main Street, less about Wall Street,” he said.

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The Big Cover Up – Why Obama Really Wants to Go to War in Syria

Sep. 12, 2013 9:02am

Wayne Allyn Root

Wayne Allyn Root is a former Libertarian Vice Presidential nominee, successful entrepreneur, small business defender, business speaker, Capital Evangelist, and media personality- appearing on over 5000 interviews in the past 5 years. Wayne’s latest book is: The Ultimate Obama Survival Guide: How to Survive, Thrive, and Prosper During Obamageddon. It hit #1 in bookstores, and is currently the 6th bestselling political hardcover in America for the past year. Wayne’s web site: ROOTforAmerica.com.

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Let’s take an honest look at what Obama is doing to black Americans and his own most loyal supporters. It is, in a word…unimaginable.

It all starts with Syria. Why Syria? Why now? Until Russia interceded, going to war in Syria seemed the most important thing in the world to Obama and his Secretary of State John Kerry. They seemed DESPERATE to go to war, at any costs.

President Obama is using Syria to distract from his poor jobs record. Photo Credit: Mandel Ngana/AFP/Getty Images

But why? Syria has nothing to do with us. They are not threatening us. Their own war is a civil war with no “good guys.” How does America benefit from a war with Syria? Why did Obama suddenly decide a “red line” has been crossed, when there are “red lines” all over the world- including the killing of Christians and the burning of 71 Christian churches in Egypt. Why is it so important to risk American lives to defend the Syrian rebels- who are partners with Al Qaeda, America’s sworn enemy? We didn’t go to war to avenge the murder of our own citizens at Benghazi, so why would we go to war to avenge Al Qaeda deaths in Syria? None of this makes any sense at all.

Until you realize it’s a massive cover-up. Obama’s WMD- Weapon of Mass Distraction. Obama is desperate to cover-up the facts about his dying economy and the damage he’s done to his own most loyal voters. Obama has destroyed the lives of the very people who consider him “the American Idol.”How bad is Obama’s economy? Forget the 7.3 percent unemployment rate that is reported by the government. That’s pure fraud and propaganda. That figure goes down only because hundreds of thousands of Americans drop out of the workforce. In other words, if you stop looking for work, and go on food stamps and welfare, Obama says the unemployment number just got better!

The only truth about unemployment is found in the Labor Force Participation Rate of 63 percent. That’s the lowest in four decades. For men it’s the lowest since record-keeping began in the 1940’s. What this means is 37 percent of the able-bodied, working age adults in America are not only not working, they’ve given up looking for work.

Even worse, a unimaginable percentage of those who are employed have only part-time jobs. Seventy-seven percent of the new jobs created since January 1st are part-time jobs. That’s not good folks. Studies show 1-in-4 part-time workers live in poverty, while only 1-in-20 full-time workers live in poverty. So millions of Americans under Obama who show up as “employed” are merely working their way towards poverty. And millions of others who have full-time jobs are working at McDonalds, or working as waiters, or bartenders, or janitors. Those are the only jobs left under Obama. The middle class is being slaughtered.

Here are the two most ironic points about this slow-motion train wreck called the Obama economy:

Obamacare is the number one culprit destroying real jobs. Business owners are done. No smart business owner in all of America will lift a finger to create a full-time, high-paying job with benefits. It just makes no economic sense anymore. So Obama’s signature achievement has not only created a part-time economy, but all those people in part-time jobs don’t have health insurance. This should be a Saturday Night Live skit. The man has created nationalized health care so that everyone loses their jobs and no one has health care. Insanity. Unless your goal is to create an entire nation of Americans living in poverty, dependent on government welfare.

Secondly, here’s the really sad, tragic, and ironic fact of the Obama economy. Obama hurts the ones he loves. Obama’s policies are destroying the very people who elected and believed in him. It’s almost as if Obama is out to destroy his own voters. Let’s take a look at who is suffering the most from this Obama Great Depression.

Obama won the 2012 election with a razor thin 51 percent of the vote. His biggest supporters were blacks (93 percent voted for Obama), Hispanics (71 percent), single women (67 percent), young people (60 percent), and those without a high school diploma (64 percent). This is the loyal foundation of Barack Hussein Obama. This is who made him President, without a single qualification, except being a community organizer.

Now let’s look at how Obama repays his loyal fans. New research out just last week proves that since 2009 income for black heads of households dropped by 10.9 percent. For Hispanic heads of households it dropped by 4.5 percent. For single women head of households it dropped by 7 percent. For young people (under age 25) it dropped by 9.6 percent. For those with a high school diploma or less, income dropped by 8 percent.

In dollar terms the numbers are even worse. Female incomes are down by $2,300 per year under Obama; black incomes are down over $4,000 per year; Hispanic incomes are down by $2,000 per year.

How about actual unemployment figures for Obama’s fans? We see the same results. Reported unemployment (a bogus figure) is 7.3 percent. But among blacks (who voted 93 percent for Obama) it is an unimaginable 13.3 percent. Among Hispanics it’s 9.4 percent. Among black youth it’s 20.9 percent. Among teens it’s 23.7 percent.

The black middle class is being destroyed. Black homeownership has slipped to the lowest level in decades.

But perhaps the worst statistic of all is the unemployment plus under-employment rate for college graduates under age 25: 18.3 percent. That means new college graduates (also big supporters of Obama) not only can’t find a decent full-time job in the Obama economy, at the same time they are saddled with the highest student debt in history. That could be why we have the highest student loan default rates in history.

So what does a President, who couldn’t find a job if it hit him in the head, do to keep the masses of his own voters from revolting and rioting in the streets? Go to war.

Create a distraction. Make people look away from the scene of the tragedy. Create a “situation” that induces patriotism. Make the masses rally around the President. And if that “situation” happens to help unemployment by sending unemployed young people and minorities off to war, BINGO- you’ve just hit the lottery!

That is the answer to the questions “Why Syria? Why now? How does this benefit America?” Obama’s war is a desperate attempt to keep his own most loyal supporters from noticing that his policies have ruined their lives and set their economic progress back decades. His policies have sent black Americans in particular hurtling back to the days of poverty and racial inequality.

Obama is desperate to keep his own voters from noticing he is the worst thing to happen to them in their lifetimes. His socialist policies don’t solve poverty, they cause poverty. And it’s no surprise. Socialism, income redistribution, big taxes, big spending, big unions, and big government have caused poverty in every nation they’ve ever been tried.

Obama, Mao, Stalin, Castro, Chavez. Same people. Same policies, Same results.

They always hurt the masses. They always victimize their own voters. They always hurt the ones they claim to love. A sick, dysfunctional death spiral.

History will not look kindly on Barack Hussein Obama. Trust me, this death spiral has only just begun.

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TheBlaze contributor channel supports an open discourse on a range of views. The opinions expressed in this channel are solely those of each individual author.

Exclusive: John McCain Will Attack Vladimir Putin in the Pages of Pravda

Posted By John Hudson Friday, September 13, 2013 - 2:56 PM Share

In a first-of-its kind arrangement, the editors of Russian news site Pravda have tentatively agreed to publish a column by Sen. John McCain that will attack the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement comes one day after Putin criticized the United States in a widely-read column in The New York Times.
"If John McCain wants to write something for us, he is welcome," Dmitry Sudakov, the English editor of Pravda tells The Cable. "Mr. McCain has been an active anti-Russian politician for many years already. We have been critical of his stance on Russia and international politics in our materials, but we would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain."
When The Cable reached the senator's office with the offer, McCain's communications director Brian Rogers responded within minutes. "On the record: Senator McCain would be glad to write something for Pravda, so we'll be reaching out to Dmitry with a submission."
The beginning of this surprising arrangement all started last night when your trusty Cable guy watched an interview between McCain and CNN's Jake Tapper about Putin's latest op-ed. In a nod to Russia's restrictive press policies (Russia is ranked 148th out of 179 in the world for respecting press freedoms by Reporters Without Borders), McCain joked "I would love to have a commentary in Pravda." 
After The Cable sent this transcript to Pravda, Sudakov bristled at the idea that his news site would be prevented from publishing a column by McCain.
"I am convinced that we would not agree on many things that he would have to say in his column, but an article like that would obviously be published in English and then translated into Russian so that all our Russian readers could read what Mr. McCain has to say," he said. "In addition... we already have a U.S. politician who acts as a regular contributor to Pravda.Ru - Paul Craig Roberts, a former Senator, a man who used to be in the team of Ronald Reagan. So I believe that Mr. McCain is not aware of the real state of affairs in my country when he expresses his judgements of freedom of speech." 

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Rogers chuckled at the suggestion that Paul Craig Roberts is a former senator (he's actually a former assistant secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy during the Reagan administration) and pointed to some of his anti-establishment views posted on his personal site. "He was never a senator," said Rogers. "If you look on his website, it's all pro-Putin stuff and how the United States is a criminal regime."
When asked what the senator might write about, Rogers said the senator would have no trouble coming up with something for next week. "This is obviously a target-rich environment," he said. "There are a lot of issues that I'm sure Sen. McCain would want to address: Democracy and human rights in Russia and certainly the Putin regime's aiding and abetting of the Syrian regime, which has killed 100,000 of its own people."
It's worth noting that this is not your grandfather's Pravda. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Pravda was temporarily shut down and a number of its journalists migrated to Pravda.ru, which is distinctly anti-Western but no longer an official organ for the Communist Party. 
Regardless, The Cable welcomes this next chapter in U.S-Russian relations and is happy to have played a small part in bringing it about. (And look: McCain didn't even need to hire a fancy public relations firm.)
Update:  The McCain camp e-mails Pravda and promises a submission by Wednesday at the latest. The story was also updated to reflect that Pravda.ru does not have a print edition: 

Dmitry: Senator McCain appreciates your offer to publish a piece by him in Pravda. We will send you the op-ed early next week, by Wednesday at the latest. Please let us know if that works. We will have Senator McCain's op-ed translated into Russian so that we can be certain of the accuracy translation, and we will send you a final version in both English and Russian.
Again, we greatly appreciate Pravda's offer to run a piece by Senator McCain. From the reaction I have seen so far, I am sure that this piece will receive great attention.
Let me know if you have any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
Brian Rogers
Communications Director
Office of Senator John McCain
 

Is the State of Emergency Superseding the US Constitution? by Peter Dale Scott

Is the State of Emergency Superseding the US Constitution? by Peter Dale Scott

Posted by loose nuke on Thu, 12/02/2010 - 6:13pm

• Constitution
• Continuity of government
• george w. bush
• Obama
• Peter Dale Scott
• state of emergency
• War on Terror

Source: http://japanfocus.org/-Peter_Dale-Scott/3448
Is the State of Emergency Superseding the US Constitution? Continuity of Government Planning, War and American Society by Peter Dale Scott
In July 1987, during the Iran-Contra Hearings grilling of Oliver North, the American public got a glimpse of “highly sensitive” emergency planning North had been involved in. Ostensibly North had been handling plans for an emergency response to a nuclear attack (a legitimate concern). But press accounts alleged that the planning was for a more generalized suspension of the constitution at the president’s determination.
As part of its routine Iran-contra coverage, the following exchange was printed in the New York Times without journalistic comment or follow-up:
[Congressman Jack] Brooks: Colonel North, in your work at the N.S.C. were you not assigned, at one time, to work on plans for the continuity of government in the event of a major disaster?
Both North’s attorney and Sen. Daniel Inouye, the Democratic Chair of the Committee, responded in a way that showed they were aware of the issue:
Brendan Sullivan [North's counsel, agitatedly]: Mr. Chairman?
[Senator Daniel] Inouye: I believe that question touches upon a highly sensitive and classified area so may I request that you not touch upon that?
Brooks: I was particularly concerned, Mr. Chairman, because I read in Miami papers, and several others, that there had been a plan developed, by that same agency, a contingency plan in the event of emergency, that would suspend the American constitution. And I was deeply concerned about it and wondered if that was an area in which he had worked. I believe that it was and I wanted to get his confirmation.
Inouye: May I most respectfully request that that matter not be touched upon at this stage. If we wish to get into this, I'm certain arrangements can be made for an executive session.1
Brooks was responding to a story by Alfonzo Chardy in the Miami Herald about Oliver North’s involvement with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) in planning for “Continuity of Government” (COG). According to Chardy, the plans envisaged “suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the government over to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, emergency appointment of military commanders to run state and local governments and declaration of martial law during a national crisis.”2
Reagan had installed at FEMA a counterinsurgency team that he had already assembled as governor of California. The team was headed by Army Col. Louis Giuffrida, who had attracted Reagan’s attention by a paper he had written while at the US Army War College, advocating the forcible warrantless detention of millions of black Americans in concentration camps. Reagan first installed Giuffrida as head of the California National Guard, and called on him “to design Operation Cable Splicer. … martial law plans to legitimize the arrest and detention of anti-Vietnam war activists and other political dissidents.”3 These plans were refined with the assistance of British counterinsurgency expert Sir Robert Thompson, who had used massive detention and deportations to deal with the 1950s Communist insurgency in what is now Malaysia.
At the time few people (including myself) attached much importance to the Chardy story about COG. Chardy himself suggested that Reagan’s Attorney General, William French Smith, had intervened to stop the COG plan from being presented to the President, and in 1985 Giuffrida was forced out of office for having spent government money to build a private residence. But COG planning not only continued, it expanded.
Seven years later, in 1994, Tim Weiner reported in the New York Times that what he called “The Doomsday Project” – the search for “ways to keep the Government running after a sustained nuclear attack on Washington” – had “less than six months to live.”4
Weiner’s language was technically correct, but also very misleading. In fact COG planning now simply continued with a new target: terrorism. On the basis of Weiner’s article, the first two books to discuss COG planning, by James Bamford and James Mann, both reported that COG planning had been abandoned.5 Recently Tim Shorrock in 2008 repeated that “the COG program was abandoned during the Clinton administration,” and Shirley Anne Warshaw in 2009 wrote that “the Clinton administration… shut down the super-secret Project.”6 But on this specific point, all these otherwise excellent and well-informed authors were wrong.
What Weiner and these authors did not report was that in the final months of Reagan’s presidency the purpose of COG planning had officially changed: it was no longer for arrangements “after a nuclear war,” but for any "national security emergency." This was defined in Executive Order 12656 of 1988 as: “any occurrence, including natural disaster, military attack, technological emergency, or other emergency, that seriously degrades or seriously threatens the national security of the United States.”7 In this way a totally legitimate program dating back to Eisenhower, of planning extraordinary emergency measures for an America devastated in a nuclear attack, was now converted to confer equivalent secret powers on the White House, for anything it considered an emergency.
This expanded application of COG was apparently envisaged as early as 1984, when, according to Boston Globe reporter Ross Gelbspan,
Lt. Col. Oliver North was working with officials of the Federal Emergency Management Agency . . . to draw up a secret contingency plan to surveil political dissenters and to arrange for the detention of hundreds of thousands of undocumented aliens in case of an unspecified national emergency. The plan, part of which was codenamed Rex 84, called for the suspension of the Constitution under a number of scenarios, including a U.S. invasion of Nicaragua.8
In other words, extreme measures, designed originally to deal with an externally directed and devastating nuclear attack, were being secretly modified to deal with domestic dissenters: a situation that still pertains today.9
The Implementation of COG on 9/11
Clearly 9/11 met the conditions for the implementation of COG measures, and we know for certain that COG plans were implemented on that day in 2001, before the last plane had crashed in Pennsylvania.
The 9/11 Report confirms this twice, on pages 38 and 326.10 It was under the auspices of COG that Bush stayed out of Washington on that day, and other government leaders like Paul Wolfowitz were swiftly evacuated to Site R, inside a hollowed out mountain near Camp David.11
But the implementation of COG went beyond short-term responses, to the installation of what Professor Shirley Anne Warshaw calls a ninety-day alternative “shadow government” outside Washington.
Cheney jumped into action in his bunker beneath the east Wing to ensure continuity in government. He immediately began to create his shadow government by ordering one hundred mid-level executive officials to move to specially designated underground bunkers and stay there twenty-four hours a day. They would not be rotated out, he informed them, for ninety days, since there was evidence, he hinted, that the terrorist organization al-Qa’ida, which had masterminded the attack, had nuclear weapons. The shadow government, as a result, needed to be ready to take over the government from the bunkers.12
These ninety days saw the swift implementation of the key features attributed to COG planning by Gelbspan and Chardy in the 1980s: warrantless detentions, warrantless deportations, and the warrantless eavesdropping that is their logical counterpart. The clearest example was the administration’s Project Endgame—a ten-year plan, initiated in September 2001, to expand detention camps, at a cost of $400 million in Fiscal Year 2007 alone.13 This implemented the central feature of the massive detention exercise, Rex 84, conducted by Louis Giuffrida and Oliver North in 1984.14
There was also a flurry of other rapid moves to restructure America’s external and domestic structures. Before discussing these, I should acknowledge the obvious: that enhanced measures to deal with terrorism are needed, and for some of them we should be grateful. We should acknowledge also, however, that the most significant achievements against terrorism have been the result of traditional intelligence and police work. As for the War on Terror, the most prominent achievement of Cheney’s ninety days, as many experts have asserted, it has created far more terrorists than it has disposed of.
On September 20, 2001, Bush launched the war on terror in a televised address to a joint session of congress, when he said, "Our 'war on terror' begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated." Today we now have about 100,000 US troops in Afghanistan to deal with an officially estimated 60 members of Al Qaeda.
The predictable result has been an expansion of terrorist activities in Somalia, Yemen, and above all Pakistan.
The war on terror was administratively implemented in three National Security Presidential Directives, NSPDs 7, 8, and 9. All three are classified, and the topics of two of them are unknown. The third, NSPD 9 of October 25, 2001, directed the Secretary of Defense to plan military options against both Taliban and al Qaeda targets in Afghanistan.15
The October date is misleading. A version of the directive calling for covert action in Afghanistan had been approved by principals on September 4, 2001, one week before 9/11.16 An enhanced plan for military action in Afghanistan, had been approved by Bush on September 17; and the same document “directed the Pentagon to begin planning military options for an invasion of Iraq.”17
Perhaps the most significant domestic product from Cheney’s trimester mirabilis was the Patriot Act of October 25, 2001. Congress was given only one week to pass this 340-page bill, which in the opinion of researchers “was already written and ready to go long before September 11th.”18 In 2007 the Justice Department acknowledged that FBI agents had abused the Patriot Act more than 1000 times.
We should not forget that the Patriot Act was only passed after lethal weapons-grade anthrax letters were mailed to two crucial Democratic Senators – Senators Daschle and Leahy – who had initially questioned the bill. After the anthrax letters, however, they withdrew their initial opposition.19 Someone – we still do not know who – must have planned those anthrax letters well in advance. We should not forget either that some government experts initially blamed the attacks on Iraq. Much later, referring to Fort Detrick, Salon reporter Glenn Greenwald pointed out that “the same Government lab where the anthrax attacks themselves came from was the same place where the false reports originated that blamed those attacks on Iraq.”20
It is generally agreed that, of the three men in National Command Authority on 9/11, Cheney was the ideologue most committed to restoring the power of a presidency that had been weakened by Watergate.21 Cheney had already declared in his Iran-Contra Minority Report of 1987 his belief that “the Chief Executive will on occasion feel duty bound to assert monarchical notions of prerogative that will permit him to exceed the law.”22 And as Vice-President Cheney, along with Cheney’s assistant David Addington and Cheney’s appointee John Yoo, established the legal apparatus for declaring that the President had the prerogative power to “deploy military forces preemptively,” and that “the Geneva Conventions and other international agreements against torture ‘do not protect members of the al Qaeda organization.”23
By Executive Order 13228 of October 8, 2001, the President established an Office of Homeland Security within the presidential Executive Office. This has engendered in turn the DHS, now the third largest US Cabinet Department, and also a series of Homeland Security Presidential Directives. For example Homeland Security Presidential Directive-6 (HSPD-6) of September 16, 2003, created a Terrorism Screening Center (TSC), to “consolidate the Government’s approach to terrorism screening.”24
Since then we have become inured to repeated stories about nonviolent individuals who are prevented from boarding airplanes, because their names are in TSC computers on the No Fly List and the Terrorist Watch List. Senator Ted Kennedy testified in Congress that he had been repeatedly delayed at airports because a “T Kennedy” was on the No Fly List. Until July 2008, Nelson Mandela was also on the list.
In addition to the No Fly List, with 4000 names in 2009 and 8000 today, some people are prevented from flying because they are on the Terrorist Watch List, a much longer list which contained over one million names as of summer 2010. This is why Walter F. Murphy, a noted professor of constitutional law, was detained in 2007 on his journey to lecture, ironically, about his book Constitutional Democracy.
According to Professor Murphy, he was asked by an airline employee,
"Have you been in any peace marches? We ban a lot of people from flying because of that" ….”I explained," said Murphy, "that I had not so marched but had, in September 2006, given a lecture at Princeton, televised and put on the web, highly critical of George Bush for his many violations of the constitution." "That'll do it," the man said.25
In the end these cases were resolved satisfactorily. But you risk permanent deportation if you have an Arabic-sounding name. The ACLU is suing on behalf of Ayman Latif, not just a U.S. citizen but a disabled U.S. Marine veteran, who under Obama has been stranded in Egypt for months, because, on orders from the U.S. Embassy, he has not been able to board a plane to come home.
This is a real hardship case: Latif told NPR that “because I missed my appointments in the U.S. to be evaluated [as a disabled vet], now the VA administration is saying that they're going to cut my benefits from what they are now to zero.” On the same program Stewart Baker, a former assistant secretary for policy with the Department of Homeland Security, vigorously defended the No Fly List. But when asked if there is “any legal authority by which the United States can say to a citizen who is abroad, you may not return to this country?” Baker replied, “I know of none.”26 This did not seem to concern him.
Ayman Latif’s case is far from unique. According to the New York Times,
Advocacy groups say they are trying to help Americans stranded in Yemen, Egypt, Colombia and Croatia, among other countries. At least one American, Raymond Earl Knaeble IV, who studied in Yemen and is now in Colombia, was returned to Colombia by the Mexican authorities after he sought to cross the border into the United States, the groups say.27
The Militarization of American Law Enforcement
Another post-9/11 innovation from the Giuffrida-Oliver North COG plans was the militarization of domestic United States law enforcement in 2002, under a new military command, NORTHCOM.28 Through NORTHCOM the U.S. Army now is engaged with local enforcement in the surveillance and counter-terrorism planning of America, in the same way that through CENTCOM it is engaged with local enforcement to police Iraq. Of course army platoons do not patrol roads and break down the doors of Kansas homes, as they routinely do in Iraq or Afghanistan. But behind the scenes, in so-called fusion centers, the military, the FBI, state police, along with private intelligence corporations like SAIC, maintain and analyze data to identify potential threats to those in power.29
These fusion centers “have been internally promoted by the US Army as means to avoid restrictions preventing the military from spying on the domestic population.”30 In other words, administrative arrangements have been used to fulfill Giuffrida’s plans of circumventing the Posse Comitatus Acts on the statute books, without repealing them.
The Proclamation of Permanent Emergencies
Finally, still in the 90-day “shadow government” period after 9/11, President Bush proclaimed two important emergencies that are still in force today.
1) On September 14, 2001, Bush issued Proclamation 7463 (“Declaration of National Emergency by Reason of Certain Terrorist Attacks”) together with Executive Order 13223 (“Ordering the Ready Reserve of the Armed Forces To Active Duty”). As we shall see, the terms of this proclamation were significantly expanded when it was renewed in 2007.
2) “On September 23, 2001, by Executive Order 13224, the President declared a national emergency with respect to persons who commit, threaten to commit, or support terrorism, pursuant to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50 U.S.C. 1701-1706).”31 This gave the president the power to confiscate without trial or warning the property of individuals providing funds to entities, such as charitable foundations, which were judged to be supporting terrorism. The Executive Order initially blocked property of twenty-seven designated terrorists. But the list has become enormous. When I last looked at it, on November 18, 2010, the list included 87 pages just for the letter A.
A lawsuit has been instituted, asserting that the designation of alleged terrorists was arbitrary; and a lower court agreed that the president's designation authority is unconstitutionally vague.32 The case is under appeal.
Cheney and Rumsfeld on the Secret Committee to Plan COG
From its beginning in 1982, two of the key planners on the secret COG planning committee were Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, the same two men who implemented COG on 9/11.33 The committee had been established by Reagan under a secret executive order, NSDD 55 of September 14, 1982. Despite what Weiner implied, the committee continued to meet without interruption until the George W. Bush presidency in 2001.34
Thus Cheney and Rumsfeld continued their secret planning during the Clinton presidency; even after both men, both Republicans, were by that time heads of major corporations and not in the government.
Andrew Cockburn cites a Pentagon source to support a claim that the Clinton administration had “no idea what was going on.”
Although the exercises continued, still budgeted at over $200 million a year in the Clinton era, the vanished Soviets were now replaced by terrorists. . . . There were other changes, too. In earlier times the specialists selected to run the “shadow government” had been drawn from across the political spectrum, Democrats and Republicans alike. But now, down in the bunkers, Rumsfeld found himself in politically congenial company, the players’ roster being filled almost exclusively with Republican hawks. . . .“You could say this was a secret government-in-waiting. The Clinton administration was extraordinarily inattentive, [they had] no idea what was going on.”35
Cockburn’s account requires some qualification. Richard Clarke, a Clinton Democrat, makes it clear that he participated in the COG games in the 1990s and indeed drafted Clinton’s Presidential Decision Directive (PDD) 67 on “Enduring Constitutional Government and Continuity of Government.”36 But COG planning involved different teams for different purposes. It is quite possible that the Pentagon official was describing the Department of Defense team dealing with retaliation.
It is important to understand that the COG “Doomsday Project” in the 1980s involved more than planning and exercises. It also oversaw “Project 908,” the construction of a multibillion dollar infrastructure for an alternative government. The key element of this was an $8 billion communications and logistics program headquartered at Fort Huachuca, Arizona, the headquarters for Army Intelligence.37
Despite initial failures in the communications network, it was ready to be put into operation and utilized on September 11, 2001 by Vice-President Cheney.38 Key commands, including the implementation of COG itself, appear to have been made over this highest-classification security network.39 This may explain why a Boeing E-4B Advanced Airborne Command Post or “Doomsday Plane,” the mobile communications center for the COG shadow government, was seen around 10 AM in the prohibited air space above the White House.40
There is no way to determine how many of the constitutional changes since 9/11 can be traced to COG planning. However we do know that new COG planning measures were still being introduced in 2007, when President Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 51 (NSPD-51/HSPD-20). This Directive set out what FEMA later called “a new vision to ensure the continuity of our Government,” and was followed in August by a new National Continuity Policy Implementation Plan.41
Under pressure from his 911truth constituents, Congressman Peter DeFazio of the Homeland Security Committee twice requested to see these Annexes. When his request was denied, DeFazio made a second request, in a letter signed by the Chair of his committee. The request was denied again.42
COG, The National Emergency, and the National Emergencies Act
I mentioned earlier that the Proclamation of a national emergency, issued by Bush on September 14, 2001, and since renewed annually to this day, changed significantly in 2007. All previous annual renewals had enumerated the emergency measures that were being renewed, for example “the measures taken on September 14, 2001, November 16, 2001, and January 16, 2002.” After Bush issued NSPD-51 of 2007, with its “new vision” and its new classified COG Annexes, the next renewal of the Emergency proclamation replaced the previous specific enumerations with a more sweeping general sentence:
Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, last extended on September 5, 2006, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency, must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2007.43
“The powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency.” This language is so vague, it is hard to see how it could not cover the “classified continuity annexes” of NSPD-51 as well. If so, the public proclamation was now proclaiming the continuation of secret powers. (The two renewals of the Emergency by Barack Obama do not repeat this language from 2007, but likewise fail to enumerate just what powers are being extended.)44
The National Emergencies Act, one of the post-Watergate reforms that Vice-President Cheney so abhorred, specifies that: “Not later than six months after a national emergency is declared, and not later than the end of each six-month period thereafter that such emergency continues, each House of Congress shall meet to consider a vote on a joint resolution to determine whether that emergency shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002).45 The law does not permit Congress to review an emergency; it requires Congress to review it.
Yet in nine years Congress has not once met to discuss the State of Emergency declared by George W. Bush in response to 9/11, a State of Emergency that remains in effect today. Appeals to the Congress to meet its responsibilities to review COG have fallen on deaf ears, even during periods when the Congress has been dominated by Democrats.46
Former Congressman Dan Hamburg and I appealed publicly in 2009, both to President Obama to terminate the emergency, and to Congress to hold the hearings required of them by statute.47 But Obama, without discussion, extended the 9/11 Emergency again on September 10, 2009,48 and again a year later.49 Meanwhile Congress has continued to ignore its statutory obligations.
One Congressman explained to a constituent that the provisions of the National Emergencies Act have now been rendered inoperative by COG. If true, this would indicate that the constitutional system of checks and balances no longer applies, and also that secret decrees now override public legislation as the law of the land.
With a few notable exceptions, there has thus far been scant interest in the media and the public in the extraordinary facts that Cheney and Rumsfeld were able to
1) help plan successfully for constitutional modifications, when not in government, and
2) implement these same changes themselves when back in power.
The first of these facts gives us a glimpse of an on-going power realm independent of the publicly acknowledged state. In the words of James Mann, “Cheney and Rumsfeld were, in a sense, a part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, inhabitants of a world in which Presidents come and go, but America always keeps on fighting.”50 A CNN Special Assignment assessment of the COG planners was even more dramatic: “In the United States of America there is a hidden government about which you know nothing.”51
What is the first step out of this current state of affairs, in which the constitution appears to have been superseded by a higher, if less legitimate authority? I submit that it is to get Congress to do what the law requires, and determine whether our present proclamation of emergency “shall be terminated” (50 U.S.C. 1622, 2002).
As part of this procedure, Congress should find whether secret COG powers, never submitted to Congress or seen by it, are among “the powers and authorities” which Bush in 2007 included in his prolongation of the 2001 emergency and which are maintained today under Obama.
This is not a technical or procedural detail. It is a test of whether the United States is presently governed by its laws and constitution, or whether, as has been alleged, the laws and constitution have now in places been superseded by COG.
Congress should go further to look into the activities of Cheney’s ninety days of COG shadow government in 2001, and their relationship to the genesis of the Patriot Act, the ten-year program for detention camps, and the permanent militarization of US domestic law enforcement.
This is a slightly revised, expanded, and developed text of an address to the Commonwealth Club, San Francisco, November 23, 2010.
Peter Dale Scott, a former Canadian diplomat and English Professor at the University of California, Berkeley, is the author of Drugs Oil and War, The Road to 9/11, The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War. His American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection and the Road to Afghanistan is in press.
His website, which contains a wealth of his writings, is here.
Recommended citation: Peter Dale Scott, "Is the State of Emergency Superseding the US Constitution? Continuity of Government Planning, War and American Society," The Asia-Pacific Journal, 48-1-10, November 29, 2010.
Notes
1 New York Times, July 14, 1987. We have never heard if there was or was not an executive session, or if the rest of Congress was ever aware of the matter. According to James Bamford, “The existence of the secret government was so closely held that Congress was completely bypassed. Rather than through legislation, it was created by Top Secret presidential fiat. In fact, Congress would have no role in the new wartime administration. ‘One of the awkward questions we faced,’ said one of the participants, ‘was whether to reconstitute Congress after a nuclear attack. It was decided that no, it would be easier to operate without them.’” (James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America’s Intelligence Agencies [New York: Doubleday, 2004], 74); cf. James Mann, The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet [New York: Viking, 2004], 145). But key individuals in Congress were, such as Sen. Inouye of the Senate Intelligence Committee, were certainly aware of something.
2 Miami Herald, July 5, 1987. In October 1984 Jack Anderson reported that FEMA’s plans would “suspend the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, effectively eliminate private property, abolish free enterprise, and generally clamp Americans in a totalitarian vise.”
3 Diana Reynolds, The Rise of the National Security State: FEMA and the NSC, Political Research Associates, Covert Action Information Bulletin, #33 (Winter 1990). “Earlier, Governor Reagan in California had authorized the development of a counterinsurgency plan (known as Cable Splicer) and exercises to deal with such crises, in conjunction with the U.S. Sixth Army and the Pentagon (Operation Garden Plot). The cadres developing Cable Splicer (headed by Louis Giuffrida), were with Reagan’s elevation to the presidency transferred into FEMA. As head of FEMA, Giuffrida pursued plans for massive detention of dissidents; these became so extreme that even Reagan’s attorney general, William French Smith, raised objections” (Scott, The Road to 9/11, 184; citing Gelbspan, Break-ins, 184).
4 Tim Weiner, New York Times, April 17, 1994.
5 Bamford, A Pretext for War, 74; cf. James Mann, The Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (New York: Viking, 2004), 138-45.
6 Tim Shorrock, Spies for hire: the secret world of intelligence outsourcing (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008)., 78; Shirley Anne Warshaw, The co-presidency of Bush and Cheney (Stanford, Calif. : Stanford Politics and Policy, 2009), 162
7 The provisions of Executive Order 12656 of Nov. 18, 1988, appear at 53 FR 47491, 3 CFR, 1988 Comp., p. 585, link. The Washington Post (March 1, 2002) later claimed, falsely, that Executive Order 12656 dealt only with “a nuclear attack.” Earlier there was a similar misrepresentation in the New York Times (November 18, 1991).
8 Ross Gelbspan, Break-ins, Death Threats, and the FBI (Boston: South End Press, 1991), 184; cf. New York Times, November 18, 1991. REX 84 (short for Readiness Exercise 84) turned out to be part of a series of such exercises (now known as Continuity of Operations Exercises) that have continued under FEMA down into the Obama era. See for example the Department of Homeland Press Release, “DHS Conducts Continuity of Operations Exercise,” June 17, 2009, link.
9 In stressing the alteration of our present political milieu by an extra-governmental group, I do not intend to exonerate Congress. In 1981 Congress passed the Military Cooperation with Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies Act. According to a brilliant and prescient essay written by an Air Force Colonel at the National War College, the Act “was specifically intended to force reluctant military commanders to actively collaborate in police work” (Air Force Lt. Col. Charles E. Dunlap, “The Origins of the American Military Coup of 2012;” quoted in Harry G. Summers, The new world strategy: a military policy for America's future (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995), 195.
10 9/11 Commission Report, 38, 326; Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 228-29.
11 Alfred Goldberg et al., Pentagon 9/11 (Washington: Department of Defense, 2007), 132.
12 Warshaw, The co-presidency of Bush and Cheney, 164-65; cf. Washington Post, March 1, 2002; Scott, Road to 9/11, 237. Warshaw took the characterization of “shadow government” from earlier reports by U.S. News and World Report in 1989, and CNN in 1991 (Warshaw, 162).
13 Scott, Road to 9/11, 238, 240-41.
14 “The exercise anticipated civil disturbances, major demonstrations and strikes that would affect continuity of government and/or resource mobilization. To fight subversive activities, there was authorization for the military to implement government ordered movements of civilian populations at state and regional levels, the arrest of certain unidentified segments of the population, and the imposition of martial rule” (Diana Reynolds, “The Rise of the National Security State: FEMA and the NSC,” Political Research Associates, Covert Action Information Bulletin, #33 (Winter 1990).
15 “NSPD-9: Combating Terrorism,” Federation of American Scientists: “On April 1, 2004, the White House released the following characterization of this otherwise classified document: “The NSPD called on the Secretary of Defense to plan for military options ‘against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics.’ The NSPD also called for plans ‘against al Qaeda and associated terrorist facilities in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control-communications, training, and logistics facilities.’"
16 “NSPD-9: Combating Terrorism,” citing testimony of Donald Rumsfeld before 9/11 Commission, March 23, 2304. Cf. Richard Clarke, Against All Enemies, 237-38; Steve Coll, Ghost Wars (New York: Penguin, 2004), 574-76; 9/11 Commission Report, 212-14. A draft of the presidential directive had originally been circulated in June 2001 (9/11 Commission Report, 208). But the directive approved on September 4 was for covert action only (9/11 Commission Report, 213).
17 James Bamford, A Pretext for War, 287.
18 Jennifer Van Bergen, “The USA PATRIOT Act Was Planned Before 9/11,” Truthout.org, May 20, 2002. Van Bergen notes a parallel with the Patriot Act’s predecessor, the Antiterrorism Act of 1996: “James X. Dempsey and David Cole state in their book, ‘Terrorism & the Constitution: Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security,’ that the most troubling provisions of the pre-USAPA anti-terrorism laws, enacted in 1996 and expanded now by the USAPA, ‘were developed long before the bombings [i.e. the Oklahoma bombing of 1995] that triggered their final enactment.’"
19 Cf. Time, Nov. 26, 2001: "While Daschle, the Senate majority leader, could have been chosen as a representative of all Democrats or of the entire Senate, Leahy is a less obvious choice, most likely targeted for a specific reason. He is head of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is involved in issues ranging from antitrust action to antiterror legislation” [emphasis added]. See also Anthony York, “Why Daschle and Leahy?” Salon, November 21, 2001.
20 Glenn Greenwald, “Vital unresolved anthrax questions and ABC News,” Salon, August 1, 2008.
21 Lew Dubose and Jake Bernstein, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency (New York: Random House, 2006), 28: “Dick Cheney…would spend the rest of his career working to restore the Nixon vision of an all-powerful executive, by undoing the Watergate reforms that came out of the early seventies.”
22 Schwarz and Huq, Unchecked and Unbalanced, 174; emphasis added.
23 Lew Dubose and Jake Bernstein, Vice: Dick Cheney and the Hijacking of the American Presidency, 187-90; citing John Yoo memos of September 25, 2001 (“deploy”) and January 2002 (“do not protect”).
24 Department of Justice, “Review of the Terrorist Screening Center,” link.
25 Naomi Wolf, “Fascist America,” Guardian (London), April 24, 2007.
26 “Former U.S. Marine Placed On ‘No Fly’ List, Sues FBI,” NPR, August 5, 2010, link. Even my two-year old grandson and his family were taken aside for special questioning at the airport, because of his
middle name, Yusuf.
27 Scott Shane, “American Man in Limbo on No-Fly List,” New York Times, June 16, 2010.
28 U.S. Department of Defense, “U.S. Northern Command,” link. Cf. John R. Brinkerhoff, PBS, Online Newshour, 9/27/02: “The United States itself is now for the first time since the War of 1812 a theater of war. That means that we should apply, in my view, the same kind of command structure in the United States that we apply in other theaters of war.” Brinkerhoff had earlier developed the martial law provisions of REX 84 in the Reagan era.
29 Shorrock, Spies for Hire, 344.
30 Julian Assange, “The spy who billed me twice,” Wikileaks. The March 2009 Army manual “US Army Concept of Operations for Police Intelligence Operations” contains phrases such as "It [fusion] does not have constraints that are emplaced on MI [Military Intelligence] activities within the US, because it operates under the auspice and oversight of the police discipline and standards."
31 “Notice-Continuation of the National Emergency With Respect to Persons Who Commit, Threaten To Commit, or Support Terrorism,” Daily Compilation Of Presidential Documents” (“Author: Obama, Barack H”), September 16, 2010, link.
32 Humanitarian Law Project v. United States Department of Treasury.
33 Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press, 2007), 183-87.
34 Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 142 (order); (Boulder, CO: Westview Press), pp. 59, 71, 102-104, and 158-178 (NSDD 55); Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy (New York: Scribner, 2007), 88 (2001).
35 Andrew Cockburn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy (New York: Scribner, 2007), 88.
36 Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America’s War on Terrorism (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004), 8, 165-75.
37 Shorrock, Spies for hire, 72-75, 292-96. Warshaw and others have referred to the whole COG operation as “Project 908;” but on the basis of available evidence I believe that Project 908 was the construction program only, as opposed to the planning and exercises which also took place. Project 908 attracted the attention of Steve Emerson and other journalists in 1989, when it was revealed that there had been huge cost overruns, double billing for the same work, and eventually destruction of many key contract documents in the course of an Army investigation. The son of the Army general overseeing the project, former Congressman Rick Renzi, was eventually indicted in 2008 on related charges of extortion, fraud, money laundering and other crimes. Steven Emerson, “America’s Doomsday Project,” U.S. News & World Report, August 7, 1989, 26-31. As of this writing, Rick Renzi’s trial, which was scheduled to begin in March 2010, “has been postponed indefinitely” (Arizona Republic, March 16, 2010,
38 See e.g. Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies, 91.
39 See discussion in Scott, Road to 9/11, 223-36. There were reports that when Bush was airborne in Air force One on 9/11, there were connectivity problems forcing the president to use an ordinary cell phone (Paul Thompson, The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute [NewYork: HarperCollins/Regan Books, 2004], 437). This may help explain why Air Force One eventually flew to Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, where the E4-B “Doomsday Planes” are based.
40 CNN, September 11, 2007, video. On the CNN show 9/11 Commission Co-chair Lee Hamilton said he had a vague memory of the mystery plane story, but that it was never discussed by the 9/11 Commission. CNN promptly withdrew its 9/11 E-4B story from its website (“CNN Pulls 9/11 E4B 'Doomsday' Plane Video Over White House,” digg, September 13, 2007,
41 Federal Emergency Management Agency, Federal Continuity Directive 1, link. NSPD-51 also nullified PDD 67, Richard Clarke’s COG directive of a decade earlier; and it referred to new "classified Continuity Annexes" which shall "be protected from unauthorized disclosure."
42 Dennis Kucinich, David Swanson, Elizabeth De La Vega, The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush ([Port Townsend, Wash.] : Feral House, [2008]), 81; Peter Dale Scott, “Congress, the Bush Administration and Continuity of Government Planning: The Showdown,” CounterPunch, March 31, 2008.
43 “Notice: Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks,” Federal Register, September 12, 2007, link, emphasis added.
44 “Notice from the President on the Continuation of the National Emergency with Respect to Certain Terrorist Attacks:….Consistent with section 202(d) of the National Emergencies Act, 50 U.S.C. 1622(d), I am continuing for 1 year the national emergency previously declared on September 14, 2001, in Proclamation 7463, with respect to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and the continuing and immediate threat of further attacks on the United States. Because the terrorist threat continues, the national emergency declared on September 14, 2001, and the powers and authorities adopted to deal with that emergency must continue in effect beyond September 14, 2010. Therefore, I am continuing in effect for an additional year the national emergency that was declared on September 14, 2001, with respect to the terrorist threat. This notice shall be published in the Federal Register and transmitted to the Congress. BARACK OBAMA, THE WHITE HOUSE, September 10, 2010,” link.
45 This language overruled the specification in President Ford’s Executive Order 11921 the same year, that, when a state of emergency was declared by the President, Congress could not review the matter for a period of six months.
46 Cf. Peter Dale Scott and Dam Hamburg, “To All Readers: Help Force Congress To Observe the Law on National Emergencies!!!,” 911Truth.org, March 24, 2009, link.
47 Peter Dale Scott, "To All Readers: Help Force Congress To Observe the Law on National Emergencies!!!" (with Dan Hamburg), http.//www.truth.org, March 24, 2009.
48 White House Press Release, September 10, 2009, link. A press briefing by Obama’s spokesman Robert Gibbs the same day did not mention the extension.
49 White House Press Release, September 10, 2010, link.
50 James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 145.
51 CNN Special Assignment, November 17, 1991.

Immediate Release : Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013

Immediate Release : Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013

by Human Rights Now on 29-04-2013

10 years after the war, Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering In Iraq. Human Rights NGO publish the Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013

 

Immediate Release

10 years after the war, Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering In Iraq.
Human Rights NGO publish the Report of a Fact Finding Mission on Congenital Birth Defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013
This year marks the tenth anniversary of the Iraq War. After the war, particularly in the most recent few years, a deeply troubling rise in the numbers of birth defects has been reported by doctors in Iraq, leading to suspicions that environmental contamination from the war may be having a significant negative effect on the health of local people, and in particular infants and children. For instance in Fallujah, the city heavily attacked by the US twice in 2004, the data of Fallujah General Hospital shows that around 15% of babies of all births in Fallujah since 2003 have some congenital birth defect.
Human Rights Now (HRN), a Tokyo based international human rights NGO in consultative status with the UNEconomic and Social Council, conducted a fact-finding mission in Fallujah, Iraq in early 2013 to investigate thesituation of the reported increasing number of birth defects in Iraq.
Today, HRN published a report over 50 pages entitled "Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering in Iraq" on this investigation.
Full Report:
Iraq Report April 2013.pdf
Appendix:       
Appendix1 Iraq.pdf

Appendix2 Iraq.pdf
This is the first investigation conducted by an international human rights NGO on the congenital birth defect issue in Iraq since 2003. Despite the gravity of the situation, there has not been a sufficient investigation of the health consequences associated with toxic munitions in Iraq by the US, UK or any independent international organization such as a UN body.
Through one month period's extensive investigation, the fact finding team has found an extraordinary situation of congenital birth defects in both nature and quantity. The investigation suggested a significant rise in these health consequences in the period following the war, and HRN found that the rights to health and life of children have been seriously violated in Fallujah, Iraq, and that the epidemic of congenital birth defects in Iraq needs immediate international attention.
The report discloses documentation and photos of over 70 cases of recent birth defects in Fallujah, with the permission of the hospital and the families.  "Although the disclosure of such incidents is an extremely sensitive issue, the families and especially the mothers expressed a strong desire to share their cases in order to highlight the birth defect situation in Iraq. We sincerely hope many people in the world, especially the states concerned as well as relevant international institutions,  know the gravity of the victimization.", Kazuko Ito, Secretary General of Human Rights Now stated.
An overview of scientific literature relating to the effects of uranium and heavy metals associated with munitions used in the 2003 Iraq War and occupation, together with potential exposure pathways, strongly suggest that environmental contamination resulting from combat during the Iraq War may be playing a significant role in the observed rate of birth defects. However, without sufficient disclosure of information related to toxic weapons used during the conflict, the cause of problem has not yet been identified.
In order to prevent further victimization of the lives of innocent children, it is urgent that a comprehensiveinvestigation into the prevalence of birth defects and toxicity related illnesses in Iraq be conducted, including any correlation between such illnesses to scrap or munitions debris left by the Iraq conflict.  It is essential to investigatethe sources and spread of birth defects, identify causes, establish effective public health policies and medical care, and provide appropriate compensation for victims.
Human Rights Now therefore calls on the US and UK governments to disclose all information regarding the types of weapons used during the occupation, quantities fired, and exact firing points, and to take necessary measures to protect the right to health and life of the local people if a pollution problem is indicated.
Furthermore, HRN calls on the Iraqi government to establish an independent commission into investigating serious health problems reported after the war, and the UN Human Rights Council to establish measures for the investigation of all human rights abuses committed during the war, including the use of inhumane and toxic weapons. The outcomes of the WHO investigation into the birth defect issue in Iraq has yet to be publically released, but in the event of a public health issue being identified, HRN additionally urges the WHO to provide technical assistance and guidance in creating policies and measures to tackle the issue, as well as to consider conducting further investigations to try to better clarify the epidemiological nature of the phenomenon.

IRAQ - GENERAL CONTEXT - ENVIRONMENT  IRAQ - GENERAL CONTEXT - HEALTH  IRAQ - SPECIFIC GROUPS - CHILDREN  IRAQ  -  BIRTH DEFECTS  

Suppressed WHO Reports on Rise of Cancer and Birth Defects in Iraq. Cover-Up of War Crimes Committed against the Iraqi People

Suppressed WHO Reports on Rise of Cancer and Birth Defects in Iraq. Cover-Up of War Crimes Committed against the Iraqi People

By Global Research News

Global Research, September 14, 2013

BMJ

Region: Middle East & North Africa

Theme: United Nations

In-depth Report: IRAQ REPORT

An initial WHO study completed in 2004 had documented the impacts of depleted uranium.It was suppressed.

The WHO  has now suppressed a second report undertaken jointly with Iraq’s Ministry of Health.  The joint WHO-MoH study pertained to the prevalence of congenital birth defects. It was scheduled to be released in November 2012.
In suppressing these reports, the WHO is complicit in covering up extensive war crimes committed against the people of Iraq.
Michel Chossudovsky, Global Research, September 14, 2013

---

WHO Suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium, expert says

BMJ, September 10, 2013
Poor reproductive and birth outcomes in Iraq, since the U.S. invasion, have received much global attention (1, 2). A joint study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Iraqi Ministry of Health (MoH) began in May-June 2012 to look at the prevalence of congenital birth defects in several governorates of Iraq (3) and was scheduled to be released in November 2012 (4).
In March 2013, a BBC documentary, (“Born under a bad sign”), offered a glimpse at the results of the WHO report. A MoH official told the BBC that “All studies done by the Ministry of Health prove with damning evidence that there has been a rise in birth defects and cancers”. Other MoH researchers confirmed that the situation with birth defects constitute a “big crisis” for the “next generation” of Iraqi children (5).
In May and July 2013, researchers petitioned the WHO and MoH to release their report (6, 7). In response, the WHO indefinitely postponed the release of that report.
This turn of events has bewildered many, especially in light of the WHO’s past failure to report similar data adequately. In November 2006 the British Medical Journal published an article entitled “WHO suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium (DU), expert says”. (8).
Furthermore, recent revelations by Hans von Sponeck, the former Assistant Secretary General of the United Nations, suggest that WHO may be susceptible to pressure from its member states. Mr. von Sponeck said that “The US government sought to prevent WHO from surveying areas in southern Iraq where DU had been used and caused serious health and environmental dangers” (9).
Serious study design flaws, principally the WHO’s avoidance of any inquiry into causation of Iraqi birth defects, is also alarming (10). Nevertheless, saving Iraqi children’s lives requires the immediate release of this indefinitely postponed WHO report.
References:
1- Al-Sabbak M, Sadik Ali S, Savabi O, Savabi G, Dastgiri S, Savabieasfahani M. 2012, Metal Contamination and the Epidemic of Congenital Birth Defects in Iraqi Cities. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 89(5): 937–944.
2-Human Rights Now, 2013, “Innocent New Lives are Still Dying and Suffering Report of a Fact Finding Mission on congenital birth defects in Fallujah, Iraq in 2013” http://www.brussellstribunal.org/article_view.asp?id=1016#.UggHoJIsltk
3- World Health Organization, Congenital birth defect study in Iraq: frequently asked questions: http://www.emro.who.int/irq/iraq-infocus/faq-congenital-birth-defect-stu…
4- Morrison, S. (2012, October 14). Iraq records huge rise in birth defects. The Independent U.K.
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/…
5-BBC News “Our World”, Born Under a Bad Sign. Duration 30 minutes. Produced by Yalda Hakim and Melanie Marshall. Aired on Sunday 24 Mar, 2013. Web address:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-W5TvnYaeN4
6- A Call to Release the WHO Report on Iraqi Birth Defects. Saturday 18 May, 2013. Multiple authors. Web address:
http://www.zcommunications.org/a-call-to-release-the-who-report-on-iraqi…
7- To the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Iraqi Ministry of Health: (New signatures added). Tuesday 30 July, 2013. Multiple authors. Web address:
http://www.zcommunications.org/to-the-world-health-organization-who-and-…
8- BMJ 2006; 333:990.2 “WHO suppressed evidence on effects of depleted uranium, expert says.”
9- Pilger, J. (2013, May 26). We’ve moved on from the Iraq war – but Iraqis don’t have that choice. The Guardian U.K.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/26/iraqis-cant-turn-ba…
10- Chowdhury, S. (2013, Jul 17) WHO’s Iraq Birth Defect Study Omits Causation. Inter Press Service News Agency.
http://www.ipsnews.net/2013/07/whos-iraq-birth-defect-study-omits-causat…