United Nations Ambassador John Bolton and longtime Iran investigator Kenneth R. Timmerman were nominated for their repeated warnings and documentation of Iran's secret nuclear buildup and revealing Iran's "repeated lying" and false reports to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Bolton was formerly U.S. Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security and was author of the Proliferation Security Initiative, an international effort to interdict shipments of weapons of mass destruction and related materials, which led to the eventual breakup of the secret nuclear network directed by Pakistan nuclear scientist A. Q. Khan. Bolton repeatedly warned of Iran's nuclear plans.

Timmerman, an independent researcher, has written extensively on Iran's nuclear activities for more than 20 years. His report for the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 1992 first detailed Iran's ties to A.Q. Khan. His most recent book, "Countdown to Crisis: The Coming Nuclear Showdown with Iran," was published last year.

Bolton and Timmerman were formally nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Sweden's former deputy prime minister and Liberal party leader Per Ahlmark.

The Nobel Peace Prize is given by the Norwegian Nobel Committee, the website of which helpfully explains who is qualified to make nominations for the prize:

Nominators

New nomination rules, effective from 2003. Compared to the old rules the list of nominators has been slightly expanded.

Any one of the following persons is entitled to submit proposals:

• members of national assemblies and governments;



• members of international courts of law;



• university chancellors; university professors of social science, history, philosophy, law and theology;



• leaders of peace research institutes and institutes of foreign affairs;



• former Nobel Peace Prize laureates;



• board members of organisations that have received the Nobel Peace Prize;



• present and past members of the Norwegian Nobel Committee; (committee members must present their nomination at the latest at the first committee meeting after February 1);



• former advisers at the Norwegian Nobel Institute.

Observing the rules given in the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, the Committee does not publish the names of candidates.

The Nobel Peace Prize may also be accorded to institutions or associations.

The nominators are strongly requested not to publish their proposals.

Given that Per Ahlmark is a former Swedish deputy prime minister, I'm not sure how he qualifies under these rules to make nominations -- perhaps he's a former advisor to the committee -- but in any event, Bolton's nomination is, in reality, just a suggestion to the Norwegian Nobel Committee that they should consider him for the prize -- it's not a shortlist, or in any significant way official.

The organization which released this information, the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, is described by Right Web in this way:

JINSA functions as an Israel and weapons lobby group whose mission is to inform several groups (such as defense organizations, administration officials, congress, and its 20,000 members) about how vital it is to support U.S.-Israeli cooperation on security issues. They view cooperation between these two groups as vital to maintaining and spreading democracy in the Middle East. In other words, United States and Israeli interests are largely one and the same.

Since 1976 the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA) has played a key role in cementing ties between U.S. and Israeli armed forces and military industries. With groups like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) lobbying Congress for increased aid to Israel, JINSA zeros in on the U.S. military network to increase strategic (and financial) links with Israel’s military-industrial complex. In addition to the generous flows of economic and military aid to Israel—accounting for one-sixth of all U.S. foreign aid—the U.S. military has underwritten the development of Israel’s armaments industry.

[...]

JINSA’s two architects are husband and wife Stephen and Shoshana Bryen. Michael Ledeen was its first executive director, hired in 1977. Two years later, Stephen Bryen took the helm and his wife succeeded him in 1981. Stephen left in 1981 to become Deputy Undersecretary of Defense and was in charge of choosing which U.S.-made defense toys Israel would buy with U.S.-allocated military funds. (3)

In recent years, JINSA was one of the groups that most strongly supported the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. Former head of the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle, is a member of JINSA’s Board of Advisers and serves as a spokesman in furthering JINSA’s goals. Other former advisory board members include Dick Cheney, John Bolton, and Douglas Feith. Former administration officials from the Reagan era are James Woolsey, Jeane Kirkpatrick, and Michael Ledeen.

So, they're well integrated into the neo-con power structure, the Bush Defense Department, and the pro-Israel lobby, which means they've essentially nominated (or caused to be nominated) one of their own.

(There's more on the JINSA here and here.)

Incidentally, despite their name, the Liberal Party in Sweden in considered to be a "center-right" party, and it's been "accused of trying to attract new voters by adopting right-wing populist rhetoric." It supported the invasion of Iraq. Per Ahlmark, it's former leader "often uses the word fellow travelers (medlöpare) to critizise people within the left and their attitudes towards totalitarian ideas and dictatorships." (In other words, he sounds like a Swedish neo-con.)

Update: In comments, BadTux has more on Per Ahlmark.