US Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that the thoughts of the American people were with Israel and its comatose former leader Ariel Sharon, whose health was rapidly deteriorating. | "Our thoughts, my thoughts are with the Sharon family," Kerry said ahead of a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "We remember his contributions, the sacrifices he made to ensure the survival and the wellbeing of Israel," he said. "All Americans are thinking of Israel and their former leader." The top US diplomat arrived in the region on Thursday on a four-day visit, his 10th since taking office in March, in a bid to push "peace talks" between Israelis and Palestinians forward. The health of Sharon, who has been in a comatose state for eight years, took a turn for the worse this week. "In the last few days, we have seen a gradual decline in the functioning of Ariel Sharon's vital organs, which are essential for his survival," Zeev Rotstein, director of the Sheba hospital in Tel Hashomer, said on Thursday. "His state is classed as critical, meaning his life is in danger," Rotstein said. Rotstein's remarks were the first made by the hospital since Israeli media on Wednesday began reporting a serious deterioration in the health of 85-year-old former general Ariel "Arik" Sharon, long-time leader of the rightwing nationalist camp who suffered a massive stroke in 2006, slipping into a coma from which he has never recovered.

Gilad Atzmon: The Guardian Laments Sharon
Jean Shaoul: Sharon’s war crimes in Lebanon: the record

Special operations teams handling tactical maneuvers for U.S. military and law enforcement could become the next viable industries for Google Glass. It could explain some of the acquisitions the company made late last year. | Picture a 10-person special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team surrounding a home where an armed gunman barricaded himself. Each SWAT member wearing Google Glass would snap a photo and share a 360-degree view with other team members to provide a sequence of events. The command center guiding the team also could upload a diagram of the house or physical structure to provide a floor plan and entrance strategy. Not only would Google Glass give the SWAT team the ability to share critical information in real time without looking down at a monitor or in another direction, it would provide an account of events from each team member for future training purposes. The insight into timing that led to either positive or negative results would become invaluable. Google Glass could also stream video from a small drone hovering overhead to special ops teams on the ground. When searching backyards, the drone could follow the suspect. Team members would see the images simultaneously, rather than one person trying to communicate the whereabouts through radio transmissions. For every positive influence Glass might create, there's a negative not far behind. In a court of law during a murder case the defense could dissect the 1.8 seconds of video just prior to the suspect's death or surrender.

In a recent New York Times article about efforts by the Senate Intelligence Committee to get its hands on (and perhaps release?) an internal report on torture that the CIA doesn’t want to turn over, the author mentions in passing the pending nomination of Caroline D. Krass to be the top lawyer at the Agency. He then notes that: Ms. Krass is a ca­reer gov­ern­ment law­yer who works at the Jus­tice De­part­ment’s Of­fice of Le­gal Coun­sel, the arm of the de­part­ment that ad­vis­es the White House on the le­gal­ity of do­mes­tic and for­eign poli­cies. The of­fice was par­tic­u­lar­ly con­tro­ver­sial dur­ing the Bush ad­min­is­tra­tion, when lawyers there wrote lengthy mem­os ap­prov­ing C.I.A. in­ter­ro­ga­tion meth­ods like wa­ter­board­ing and sleep dep­ri­va­tion, as well as sign­ing off on the ex­pan­sion of sur­veil­lance by the Na­tion­al Se­cu­rity Agency. That is very useful information, worthy of its own article. Because the move of Krass from OLC to CIA is highly suspicious. After all, they’re taking someone from the very heart of the cover-up over torture at the Agency and putting her in charge of… legal blocking of inquiries into CIA actions.

Politico: Appeals court: OK to keep surveillance opinion secret

S. Lendman: Palestinian Children in Cages | Imagine putting them in cages. Imagine them outside in stormy winter weather. Israel did so in December. Two Israeli National Public Defender lawyers witnessed it firsthand. They met with Palestinian prisoners. They included young children. They were "shock(ed)" to see them confined outdoors at night in freezing stormy weather. They spent hours waiting to be taken to court around 6AM. The practice has been ongoing "for months," they said. They verified it during previous visits. ■ Israel willfully, systematically, maliciously and lawlessly abuses detained Palestinian children. They're treated like adult prisoners. Mercy isn't Israel's long suit. Nor are peace, equity, justice or respect for fundamental human and civil rights. Israel spurns them repeatedly. It's standard practice. It remains unaccountable for grave crimes against humanity. The Public Committee Against Torture in Israel (PCATI) calls torture and ill treatment of any kind morally, ethically and legally incompatible with democratic values. PCATI "advocates for all persons - Israelis, Palestinians, labor immigrants, and other(s)." It does so to "protect them from torture and ill treatment by" Israeli interrogation and enforcement authorities. It does it in accordance with rule of law principles and other democratic values. It challenges longstanding lawless Israeli practices. Torture is official Israeli policy.

Al-Akhbar: Israeli sniper kills Gaza teen

Antarctic sea ice has grown to a record large extent for a second straight year, baffling scientists seeking to understand why this ice is expanding rather than shrinking in an [allegedly] warming world. | On Saturday, the ice extent reached 19.51 million square kilometers, according to data posted on the National Snow and Ice Data Center Web site. That number bested record high levels set earlier this month and in 2012 (of 19.48 million square kilometers). Records date back to October 1978. The increasing ice is especially perplexing since the water beneath the ice has warmed, not cooled. The "overwhelming evidence" is that the Southern Ocean is warming, said Jinlun Zhang [claimed], a University of Washington scientist, studying Antarctic ice. “Why would sea ice be increasing? Although the rate of increase is small, it is a puzzle to scientists.”

WUWT: Climategate: Links to everything about Climategate