A former senior member of the CIA has claimed David Cameron and Barack Obama "don't have a clue" about dealing with the war on terror. At the Hay Festival in Powys, Michael Scheuer, ex-head of the CIA's Bin Laden unit, said the conflict in the Middle East was caused by US foreign policy.
He said extremists had no interest in western culture, but hatred stemmed from action in places like Afghanistan.
Asked what advice he would give Mr Obama, he said to "tell the truth".
Speaking on the fourth day of the Hay-on-Wye Festival, Mr Scheuer said: "American politicians, and I'm afraid listening to Mr Cameron this week, there's not a clue about what's going down in the western world.
"They can't cope with the fact that it's nothing to do with the way we live. It doesn't have anything to do with elections or democracy or liberty.
"We are being attacked in the west and we will continue to be attacked in the west as long as we are in Afghanistan, as long as we support the Israelis, as long as we protect the Saudi police state.
"Yet we hear the President, we hear your Prime Minister, talking about thugs and gangsters. We are still in the starting blocks in this war.
"The main recruitment sergeant for al Qaeda is Barack Obama because his speech on the May 19 was a declaration of cultural war on Islam."
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