This morning, the neoconservative opinion page of the Wall Street Journal published a little-known former intelligence analyst making claims of a vast left-wing conspiracy in the U.S. intelligence community to cover up Iran’s alleged nuclear weapons program. Fred Fleitz‘s analysis posits – in a style more befitting Newsmax (where he now writes) or David Horowitz‘s conspiracy-riddled site than a major newspaper — that “liberal professors and scholars from liberal think tanks” gave biased (good) reviews of the still-classified 2011 National Intelligence Estimate (N.I.E.) on Iran because — well, basically because they’re (supposedly) liberals. Fleitz concludes:

It is unacceptable that Iran is on the brink of testing a nuclear weapon while our intelligence analysts continue to deny that an Iranian nuclear weapons program exists.

The accusations would be hilarious if they weren’t so serious. In essence, Fleitz is writing that the consensus of the U.S.’s 16 intelligence agencies — that Iran has still not made the decision to build a nuclear weapon — should be thrown out and everyone should listen to him.

But Fleitz’s own tenure in government was so plagued by scandal and deeply flawed and biased analysis that it raised hackles from experts worldwide. He espoused a worldview that considers anything insufficiently edgy or hawkish enough “wimpy.” Here are some of Fleitz’s greatest hits:

– Fleitz was a CIA officer who, in 2002, took on a position as reflexive überhawk John Bolton‘s chief of staff, where, wrangling with the intelligence community about Cuba’s (non-existent) biological weapons program, he wrote to his boss that it is a “political judgment as to how to interpret [intelligence] data.”

– Fleitz was also reportedly involved in the leaking of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame’s name to the media in retaliation for her husband’s public questioning of the Bush administration’s assertions about Iraq’s WMDs. Fleitz worked in the same CIA office as Plame and reportedly passed her name to Bolton, who gave it to I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby‘s aides.

– By 2006, Fleitz made his way to the House Permanent Select Intelligence Committee as a staffer under then-GOP Chairman Pete Hoekstra. In August of that year, Fleitz authored a report about Iran’s nuclear program that was so overblown that it elicited a letter of complaint about “erroneous, misleading and unsubstantiated information” from the U.N. atomic watchdog.

Given his record of sloppy analysis, bullying, and close association with some of the Bush administration’s leading hawks, there is a special irony in Fleitz’s complaint in the Journal that the intelligence community is “affected by the wave of risk aversion that has afflicted U.S. intelligence analysis since the 2003 Iraq War.” Perhaps Fleitz was the perfect man to write an op-ed for a paper that’s already more or less called for war with Iran.

The Washington- and Jerusalem-based pro-Israel lobby organization The Israel Project (TIP) claims to be dedicated to “get(ting) facts about Israel and the Middle East to press, public officials and the public.” But it appears that the group is not always particularly interested in getting the facts out. A ThinkProgress investigation has revealed that not only is TIP connected to an Iran-focused media group allegedly based in London, but also the pro-Israel group appears to be trying to cover up those ties.

Last year, a LobeLog investigation of TIP revealed ties between the group and a European media organization called Réalité-EU, a group that “focuses on developments in Iran and the Middle East which pose a global threat.” When asked about Réalité-EU’s connections to The Israel Project, TIP co-founder and president Jennifer Laszlo Mizrahi intimated that the reporter (this post’s co-author, Eli Clifton, now at ThinkProgress) was a conspiracy theorist and asked that he “pls [sic] check your facts before you make me/TIP into some scary boogie man.”

Now, ThinkProgress has learned that in 2008, the Réalité-EU project received a quarter-million dollars through a donation made to TIP by the Marcus Foundation. According to the foundation’s tax filings [PDF], TIP, at its K Street address, received the $250,000 for “Iran Media Project – Realite-EU,” which was listed as the “Project Title.” A screen capture of the grant can be viewed below:

While TIP is focused on Israel first and foremost, the group also regularly focuses on the Iranian threat to Israel and the U.S. However, Réalité-EU is more narrowly focused on the Iranian threat in general. TIP has made no secret of its pro-Israel leanings and its mission of giving a “more positive public face” to Israel and Israeli government policies. But Réalité-EU has never presented itself as a pro-Israel organization or publicly associated with pro-Israel organizations like TIP.

Despite this clear evidence of TIP’s connection to Réalité-EU, neither side will admit the relationship exists. ThinkProgress asked all parties involved about the Marcus Foundation grant to TIP for the Réalité-EU project, but no one proffered answers to repeated inquiries. Gerlinde Gerber, a communications associate at Réalité-EU, answered a London, U.K. telephone number for the project, but said she was in Washington, D.C. When asked about connections between Réalité-EU and TIP, Gerber told ThinkProgress she is “not authorized” to speak about the topic.

When asked if she was based at TIP’s Washington office, Gerber again refused to answer. ThinkProgress then called TIP’s main switchboard and asked for Gerber. We were told, “Sure, hold on one second.” After a couple minutes on hold, the line went dead. On a second try, a new receptionist answered and told ThinkProgress no one with that name was at TIP.

TIP president Mizrahi also did not answer direct e-mail inquiries or multiple messages left with her organization regarding the Marcus Foundation grant and TIP’s communications director Alan Elsner refused to discuss the issue and hung up.

Mizrahi had previously lashed out when asked by LobeLog about Réalité-EU’s connection to TIP, writing, “I goggled [sic] you and it seems you are a blogger who sees war mongering Jews all over the place. Oh, what a danger! I hope the world will be safe from them!” Mizrahi claimed she was a “peace activist” and pleaded that she not be painted “as some right-wing crazy.” She then passed along a quote from the organization’s “web guy” saying the two groups are “not connected.”

But Mizrahi has a history of associations with right-wing activism. In her personal capacity, Mizrahi gave $25,000 to the neoconservative think tank the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). Staff members at FDD, which is heavily focused on Iran, regularly advocate for a military strike against Iran. And generally, TIP has espoused extreme views on Israel. Recently, the organization has suggested that talking heads should refer to the effort to end settlements in the West Bank as “ethnic cleansing.” And a guide produced by the group instructs its American allies to stoke fear of immigrants and 9/11 when discussing Israel’s “right of return” debate.

Separately, a ThinkProgress investigation recently revealed that TIP has paid at least $140,000 to disgraced Christian right lobbyist Ralph Reed, who is currently promoting right-wing Israeli policies in the Republican Party.

Just as Mizrahi’s associations with advocates for war with Iran and far-right-wing opponents of a two-state solution should raise questions about her bona fides as a “peace activist,” TIP and Réalité-EU’s inability to answer basic questions about their organizations and their ties to each other should raise questions about their mission to inform media and the public about the “facts” in the Middle East.

– Taliban spokespeople denied that the group’s leader Mullah Omar had died of a heart attack, claiming their communications were hacked after messages from their email and phone accounts to media claimed he died of a heart attack in Afghanistan.

– In an indictment of two Pakistani-Americans, the F.B.I. alleged that Pakistan’s shadowy Inter Services Intelligence agency reimbursed a network of donors and officials from an advocacy group in order to move U.S. policy into a posture more friendly to Pakistani aspirations for control of its contested Kashmir border region with India.

– U.S. officials in Pakistan, under pressure from Washington to increase the visibility of U.S. aid and counter anti-American sentiment, are requiring aid organizations operating in the Afghan border region to advertise they receive American assistance. Aid groups expressed concern that the new requirements may put aid workers in danger if they advertise their U.S. connections.

– NATO yesterday handed over responsibility for the security in the city of Mehterlam, the capital of Laghman province, in eastern Afghanistan.

– Indicating that U.S. troops may be in Iraq past 2011, a former defense official involved with the 2008 U.S. Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq said, “At the time of the negotiations it was made clear that it would not be the last agreement, it would be the first.”

– Rep. Peter King’s (R-NY) Homeland Security committee will hold a third hearing on the controversial topic of radicalized American Muslims at the end of July despite objections that the focus singles out the Islamic faith.

– Veterans with PTSD are facing obstacles to proper care because when they “seek therapy, they want a professional who can relate to soldiers in combat, and that usually means a therapist who has military experience.” But “most psychologists and mental health care professionals don’t have a military background, there’s a void in the safety net for vets.”

– France’s foreign minister reports that scenarios exist where Moammar Gadhafi could be allowed to stay in Libya if he “clearly steps aside from Libya’s political life.”

– Iran claims it has shot down an unmanned U.S. spy plane over the Fordu nuclear site following Iranian announcements that a new generation of advanced uranium enrichment centrifuges were installed at the facility.