The Defense Department has established a "civilian expeditionary workforce" that will train and equip American civilians to deploy overseas in support of military missions worldwide.
The purpose of the program "is to maximize the use of the civilian workforce to allow military personnel to be fully utilized for operational requirements," according to a Defense Department report.
The directive states that civilian employees of the DoD will be asked to sign agreements stating that they will deploy in support of military missions for up to two years if needed. The directive is effective immediately. Members will serve overseas in support of reconstruction, humanitarian, and, if necessary, combat support missions.
Although the directive suggests that the DoD will at first seek volunteers to serve in the civilian workforce, section 4, subsection (e) paragraph (2) states:
"Management retains the authority to direct and assign civilian employees, either voluntarily, involuntarily, or on an unexpected basis to accomplish the DoD mission."
Several times, the DoD directive refers to the civilian workforce as a component of the "Total Force," which it describes as "The organizations, units, and individuals that compromise the DoD resources for implementing the National Security Strategy." This "Total Force" includes active, reserve and retired military personnel in addition to DoD civilian employees.
When Barack Obama was campaigning, in July 2008, he called for a "civilian national security force" as powerful as the U.S. military. Said Obama then:
"We cannot continue to rely on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded."
At the time, Obama’s comments were largely ignored by corporate media but they troubled some independent journalists, some of whom compared the idea to the Nazi Hitler Youth. This fear was compounded following Obama’s appointment of Rahm Emanuel to chief-of staff.
Rahm Emanuel, in his book, "The Plan: Big Ideas for America," writes:
"It’s time for a real Patriot Act that brings out the patriot in all of us. We propose universal civilian service for every young American. Under this plan, all Americans between the ages of 18 and 25 will be asked to serve their country by going through three months of basic training, civil defense preparation and community service."
Emanuel is also an enthusiastic supporter of the United States Public Service Academy Act, a lobbying group founded in 2006 in order to promote the foundation of an American public service academy modeled on the military academies - a youth corps whose students would be trained in "civilian internship in the armed forces".
Also, in a rediscovered audio clip of a 2006 interview with Ben Smith of the New York Daily News, Emanuel detailed his agenda for compulsory military-style training, essentially a domestic draft, aimed at preparing Americans for a chemical or biological terrorist attack.
When controversy arose over the program last November, the use of the word "required" to describe the program was removed from Obama’s change.gov website and replaced with "community service" terminology.
Though the civilian expeditionary workforce program is restricted to DoD employees, similar programs have already been established for public sector workers.
One such program has recently had hundreds of utility workers, police, firefighters, and paramedics trained and dispatched as "Terrorism Liaison Officers" in Arizona, Colorado, and California to watch for "suspicious activity" which is then reported into a government database.