Stephen Lendman

On October 6, thousands massed in Washington on the 10th anniversary of America's illegal Afghan war against a nonbelligerent country.

Years ago it was lost. Nonetheless, it continues without end. The business of America is war, permanent wars, multiple ones. One nation after another is plundered for wealth and power while homeland needs go begging.

US duopoly power spurns human and civil rights, rule of law principles, and democratic values. Long ago they were abandoned to advance Washington's imperium globally.

Allied with America's military/industrial profiteers, Wall Street runs America. Political Washington serves them. Public needs are increasingly shut out.

The criminal class in Washington is bipartisan. Every new administration and Congress exceed the worst of previous ones. America's heading straight downhill.

Political Washington is corrupted, broken, and unfixable. Thomas Jefferson wrote in America's Declaration of Independence:

"Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, -- That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government..."

That time is now! Change never comes top down, only bottom up by committed people demanding no less.

Fed up Americans across the country want long denied social justice. Slogans like "Banks Got Bailed Out! We Got Sold Out!" are chanted. Occupy Together.org said "meetups" were established in 761 cities and towns.

They're heading everywhere, despite enormous obstacles confronting them. Corporate money wants them co-opted. Corrupt union bosses and political insiders are involved.

Committed leaders city by city aren't evident. Neither is focus on what matters most. Without it, only cosmetic changes are possible.

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John Pilger

The High Court in London will soon to decide whether Julian Assange is to be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual misconduct. At the appeal hearing in July, Ben Emmerson QC, counsel for the defence, described the whole saga as "crazy". Sweden's chief prosecutor had dismissed the original arrest warrant, saying there was no case for Assange to answer. Both the women involved said they had consented to have sex. On the facts alleged, no crime would have been committed in Britain.

However, it is not the Swedish judicial system that presents a "grave danger" to Assange, say his lawyers, but a legal device known as a Temporary Surrender, under which he can be sent on from Sweden to the United States secretly and quickly. The founder and editor of WikiLeaks, who published the greatest leak of official documents in history, providing a unique insight into rapacious wars and the lies told by governments, is likely to find himself in a hell hole not dissimilar to the "torturous" dungeon that held Private Bradley Manning, the alleged whistleblower. Manning has not been tried, let alone convicted, yet on 21 April, President Barack Obama declared him guilty with a dismissive "He broke the law".

This Kafka-style justice awaits Assange whether or not Sweden decides to prosecute him. Last December, the Independent disclosed that the US and Sweden had already started talks on Assange's extradition. At the same time, a secret grand jury - a relic of the 18th century long abandoned in this country - has convened just across the river from Washington, in a corner of Virginia that is home to the CIA and most of America's national security establishment. The grand jury is a "fix", a leading legal expert told me: reminiscent of the all-white juries in the South that convicted blacks by rote. A sealed indictment is believed to exist.

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