For the third time this week, a retired CIA officer has told Antiwar Radio that U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East is the driving force in al Qaedaâ€™s recruitment and motivation for attacking America on September 11th.

Ray McGovern, a 27 year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency, when asked Friday afternoon what he thought of the exchange between Congressman Ron Paul and Rudy Giuliani said (at 23:45 out of 43:23)

MP3 here.

â€œIâ€™m really edified by Ron Paul stepping up and stating what he believes to be the case.

â€œIf you believe that they hate us for our democracy or for our freedoms, well Iâ€™ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that Iâ€™d really like to sell you at a cut rate.

â€œThey hate us for our policies and thatâ€™s what Ron Paul was saying. â€¦

â€œGiuliani â€¦ really showed his true colors there as a demagogue.â€

Earlier this week Michael Scheuer, the former chief of the CIAâ€™s bin Laden unit and Philip Giraldi, another former CIA counter-terrorism officer, made much the same statements to Antiwar Radio.

McGovern then made the common analogy of terrorists and mosquitos and why the policy should be to â€œdrain the swamp.â€ But rather than advising more invasions in the name of swamp draining as the Bush administration has maintained is their policy, McGovern says you want to remove the circumstances which create terrorism, by â€œfind[ing] out where these terrorists are breeding.â€

â€œ[There is a] swamp of grievances dating back decades: Three generations of people living in the equivalent of concentration camps in the West Bank and Gaza, dictatorial regimes in Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other places.

â€œIf you look at those grievances and instead of trying to shoot those terrorists as they leave that swamp, you drain that swamp by addressing those grievances and giving these people some reason to hope for a better future. â€¦

â€œPeople will come back and say, â€˜Now Ray, for Godâ€™s sake, Osama bin Laden doesnâ€™t give a darn about the Palestinians.â€™ Well, that doesnâ€™t matter whether he does or he doesnâ€™t. He knows the kind of resonance that kind of appeal has.â€

McGovern then quoted the 9/11 Commission Report regarding the motivation of Kahlid Sheik Mohammad, the ringleader of the September 11th attacks:

â€œKahlid Sheik Mohammad was motivated not by any antipathy resulting from his stay in the United States [where he had attended college years before], but by his profound hatred for U.S. policy toward Israel â€“ favoring Israel one-sidedly.â€

McGovern then summarized a footnote in the back of the 9/11 Commission Report as saying:

â€œThese are practically the exact words of what Ramzi Yousef – Kahlid Sheik Mohammadâ€™s nephew – used in bragging about his pride in being condemned to 140 years in a federal penitentiary for trying to knock down one of the Twin Towers back in 1993.â€

That is indeed what Yousef said.

Also discussed: How the 9/11 Commission whitewashed the role of U.S. Israel policy in their report, How the Dick Cheney-neoconservative cabal lied us into war in Iraq and Tenetâ€™s failure to stop them, the history of the â€œcrazies in the basement,â€ Bush Jr.â€™s relationship with Cheney in light of Steve Clemonsâ€™ scoop about Dick Cheneyâ€™s efforts to force a war with Iran in an end run around the President, Brent Scowcroftâ€™s statement that Ariel Sharon had Bush wrapped around his little finger and why he made it, Cheneyâ€™s twisted motivations for the exercise of his power, the interest which put Cheney firmly in the camp of the Israel Lobby over most of the rest of the establishment and why he hasnâ€™t completely given up on the Democrats.