(Sorry for AWOL status. I spent yesterday in Athens and have just arrived for a conference in Florence where the internet is out at the hotel and in short supply elsewhere.

On Tuesday, Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will spend some time with President Bush in Washington. Hopefully, they will engage in some “re-visioning” of what is possible in moving forward on the resolution of Israel’s borders in a negotiated process leading to a Palestinian state.

Expect a post from me this evening. I’ll be traveling today to London for some quick meetings with foreign policy hands. Tuesday and Wednesday, Athens. Wednesday night through Saturday, Florence for a major terrorism conference sponsored by the NYU Center on Law and Security. More soon.

Bobby Ray Inman’s claims are “BS”, claimed one very prominent Washington insider after reading TWN‘s report on Inman’s claim that Richard Armitage would be indicted in the Valerie Plame Wilson outing probe.

(Former NSA Director Bobby Inman speaking at George H.W. Bush Presidential Library) Michael Hayden’s CIA Director confirmation hearings start today in the Senate Intelligence Committee at 9:30 a.m. I’ll be listening.

A job opening in the State Department’s Bureau of International Organization Affairs has just been posted. This would be an ideal spot to watch what the US Mission to the UN is doing and particularly the US Ambassador to the UN, John Bolton.

I’m up at the Woodrow Wilson School today at Princeton University through tomorrow. Will post tomorrow morning, but until then — by popular demand — another Oakley picture and an open thread.

Wednesday this week, the Valerie Plame grand jury will assemble again, and that might be the day that Jason Leopold’s report on Rove’s indictment last Friday either makes global news or fizzles out.

Behind the scenes, White House aides—as well as other prominent Republicans in Washington—are nervous that their most valuable political player could be taken out of the game on the eve of a crucial midterm election this fall. “To see him back before that grand jury has people very worried,” said a House GOP lawmaker and close ally of the White House, who decline

(Pondering a post-Castro Cuba) I’ve just spent one day in Mexico City, my first time. Mostly, I was with a group of academics and public intellectuals mostly from ITAM in Mexico City, the University of Texas in Austin, and the University of Havana in Cuba.