The personal attacks on Assange ignore his achievement as founder of WikiLeaks in publishing US government cables that give people across the world insight into how their governments really behave.

With al-Qaida officially declaring war on the Syrian regime, the de facto US-Saudi-al-Qaida-Israeli marriage of convenience against the anti-US "crescent" is quite startling.

Suleiman Abdallah was a victim of a bounty system that emerged in Somalia in 2002, whereby people were captured by local warlords and sold to the CIA as "terror suspects" in return for cash.

Tony Blair is paid £2.5 million a year by the bank J P Morgan, £1 million a year by Zurich International, and charges up to £190,000 for lectures and after-dinner speeches.

Much as the government tries to hide from the British public how disastrous the war in Afghanistan has become, most people can see the reality and want the troops home now.

Governments find it easier to sugar-coat their strategic failures than confront them head-on -- deferring taking responsibility, failing to recognise mistakes, ignoring hard lessons.

"They will add anything to security. If they are going to be used they will explode over some of the most densely populated areas in London."

According to Armed Forces Day, the UK army is "busy working around the world promoting peace" rather than fighting losing wars, slaughtering thousands, in other people's countries.

In Britain, where the propaganda of big capital also dominates, Tony Blair, a conspirator in the greatest crime of this century, is promoted as "a wasted talent".

Western governments are continuing to pour petrol onto the Syrian conflict while talking the language of peace and democracy and their desire to 'stop the bloodshed'.