Excerpt from a letter written to Antiwar.com. I think it’s worth a read considering it was written by the former chief of the CIA’s Osama bin Laden Unit.*

Of the eighteen presidential candidates now in the field from both parties, only Mr. Paul has had the courage to square with the average American voter. We are indeed hated and being warred against because we are “over there,” and not for what we are and how we live. Our failure to recognize the truth spoken by Mr. Paul – and spelled out for us in hundreds of pages of statements by Osama bin Laden since 1996 – is leading America toward military and economic disaster.

Excerpt from an audio interview with Antiwar Radio. I think it’s worth a listen considering the interviewee is a former CIA counter-terrorism officer.

I think anybody who knows anything about what’s been going on for the last 10 years would realize that cause and effect are operating here – that, essentially, al Qaeda has an agenda which very specifically says what its grievances are. And its grievances are basically that ‘we’re over there.’

So all Ron Paul was basically saying was that – even as the 9/11 commission report indicated – there were consequences for our presence in the Middle East and if we seriously want to address the terrorism problem we have to be serious about that issue.

Giuliani indicated that he was not only not serious about that issue, but seemed to be ignorant of both the 9/11 [Commission] report and political realities in the Middle East.

UPDATE: Just a couple of hours ago, Ron Paul showed up at an event at the National Press Club with another former CIA employee in his corner, and promptly suggested some light summer reading for Rudy. (- via Reason Online)

*I bet when bin Laden and his buddies are all sitting around, pounding double-deuces of goat’s milk, getting high on incense, and grooving to some old-school chanting, one guy will be like “I helped orchestrate the attack on the Kohl” and then some other guy will be like “Big deal. I helped get the 9/11 hijackers into the country and then got them their flight training.” And all the while, bin Laden’s just sitting there, big grin on his face, and finally says, “Hey who here has an entire CIA division named and devoted solely to him?” and then all the other guys just shut up and are all like “You win.”