White Unemployment 5.3% -- Black Unemployment 11.4%

CNS News
September 5, 2014

(CNSNews.com) – While unemployment nationwide is 6.1%, the unemployment rate for black Americans at 11.4% is more than double the rate for white Americans, who have an unemployment rate of 5.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS).

The unemployment rate for Latino Americans, at 7.5%, is also lower than the unemployment rate for blacks, theBLS data show.

For black Americans, age 16 and older, seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate between July and August stayed the same at 11.4%, and that is up from the 10.7% rate in June.  The last time the black unemployment rate was 11.4% was more than 5 years ago, in October 2008. (It was at a low 7.6% in August 2007.)

(AP Photo)

For white Americans, 16 years and older, seasonally adjusted, the unemployment rate also stayed the same at 5.3% between July and August, which was the same as it was in June. Except for April 2013, which also saw a rate of 5.3%, the last time it was at that level was in July/August 2008.

For Latinos, 16 and older, seasonally adjusted, the 7.5% unemployment rate in August was down from 7.8% in July. It has not fallen below the 7% range since May 2008.

According to the Census Bureau, whites make up 77.7% of the U.S. population; blacks comprise 13.2% of the population; and Hispanic or Latino make up 17.1% of the population.

The business and economic reporting of CNSNews.com is funded in part with a gift made in memory of Dr. Keith C. Wold.

Russia, China aim to close military technology gap with U.S.: Hagel

Yahoo News
September 3, 2014

NEWPORT Rhode Island (Reuters) - Russia and China are trying to close the technology gap with the U.S. military and developing weapons systems that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. advantages, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said on Wednesday.

Hagel was speaking before a NATO summit expected to bring Russia's souring relations with the West into sharp focus and the goals of NATO allies to strengthen defense spending.

Hagel said the Pentagon was renewing a push to revamp how it works with the defense industry. The goal, he said, was to promote greater innovation needed to preserve America's technological edge, even at a time of tighter budgets.

"While the United States currently has a decisive military and technological edge over any potential adversary, our future superiority is not a given," Hagel told a defense industry forum in Rhode Island.

U.S. defense officials have watched as Moscow and Beijing have tested a string of sophisticated weapons, from radar-evading aircraft and anti-ship missiles that fly many times the speed of sound, to integrated air defenses.

While the Defense Department's spending of around $500 billion is still more than the next six or seven countries combined, research and development spending has fallen more than 20 percent since President Barack Obama took office.

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U.S. Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel speaks during a press conference with Australia's Defense  …

In contrast, China and Russia have been rapidly increasing their security spending and have passed new technological milestones in recent years.

"China and Russia have been trying to close the technology gap by pursuing and funding long-term, comprehensive military modernization programs," Hagel said.

"They are also developing anti-ship, anti-air, counter-space, cyber, electronic warfare and special operations capabilities that appear designed to counter traditional U.S. military advantages."

Leading U.S. weapons manufacturers, including Lockheed Martin Corp, Boeing Co and Northrop Grumman Corp, have urged the Pentagon to continue investing in research and development of new weapons and technologies despite less military spending.

  Frank Kendall, the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, said he had been asked to lead an initiative that would take a longer-term look at research and development spending.

"When you cut R&D you are delaying modernization. Period," Kendall told the ComDef 2014 defense conference in Washington.

(Reporting by Phil Stewart, Andrea Shalal-Esa and David Alexander; Editing by Grant McCool)

CIA ADMITTED TO STAGING FAKE JIHADIST VIDEOS IN 2010

Infowars News
September 3, 2014

A 2010 Washington Post article authored by former Army Intelligence Officer Jeff Stein features a detailed account of how the CIA admittedly filmed a fake Bin Laden video during the run up to the 2003 Iraq war.

The article, which includes comments from multiple sources within the CIA’s Iraq Operations Group, explains how the agency had planned to “flood Iraq with the videos” depicting several controversial scenarios.

“The agency actually did make a video purporting to show Osama bin Laden and his cronies sitting around a campfire swigging bottles of liquor and savoring their conquests with boys, one of the former CIA officers recalled, chuckling at the memory,” the article states. “The actors were drawn from ‘some of us darker-skinned employees.’”

Other CIA officials admitted to planning several fake videos featuring former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, one of which would depict the leader engaged in sexual acts with a teenage boy.

“It would look like it was taken by a hidden camera,” said one of the former officials. “Very grainy, like it was a secret videotaping of a sex session.”

According to one official, the video ideas were eventually scrapped due to the CIA officers, who spent their careers in Latin America and East Asia, not understanding “the cultural nuances of the region.”

“Saddam playing with boys would have no resonance in the Middle East — nobody cares,” a third former CIA official said. “Trying to mount such a campaign would show a total misunderstanding of the target. We always mistake our own taboos as universal when, in fact, they are just our taboos.”

The article does however admit that one specific psyop was successfully implemented, linking to a document from the Rand Corporation that explains the program.

Read the entire article