"Read what Osama bin Laden said. We had a base in Saudi Arabia that was an affront to their religion, that was blasphemy, as far as they were concerned," Texas Congressman Ron Paul said.

He also said the US was bombing Iraq for 10 years. "We've interferred in Iran since 1953. Our CIA has been involved in the overthrow of their governments. We're, right now, in the process of overthrowing that nation," Paul said.

"We side more with Israel and Pakistan, and they get annoyed with this."

Paul, who has surprised many in the Republican Party and outside for his ability to collect campaign contributions was asked on a press meet whether the al-Qaeda would leave America alone if the US did not have troops in the Middle East.

"Not immediately, because they'd have to believe us. But what would happen is the incentive for Osama bin Laden to recruit suicide terrorists would disappear. Once we left Lebanon in the early 1980s, the French and the Americans and Israelis left Lebanon, suicide terrorism virtually stopped.

"So we have to understand that. We have to understand how we would react if some country did to us exactly what we do to them. And then we might have a better understanding of their motivation, why somebody would join the al-Qaeda," he said.