As bin Laden pointed out in his video, Blum believes US interference in the world has brought about unthinkable misery, should stop immediately and apologies should be made.

On Sino-US relations he is as unequivocal. 'America has no moral right to criticise China on its human rights record,' he tells the South China Morning Post. 'The US contribution to the violation of human rights is very extensive. They have not the moral right and no superiority to criticise China.

'The US regards China as a political and economic threat,' he says, and refers to regular reports in Washington on possible risks to the supremacy of the 'empire'.

But he is also cautious about the mainland's appetite for reform. When discussing the latest directive on police interrogations being videotaped, he says similar precautions were in place in the US but seldom enforced.

'I'd be very surprised if it changed in China. I don't think the government is composed of very humane people, and they abuse their people in many ways.'

However, he does hold China in high regard in one aspect. Along with Cuba and Venezuela, he says, Beijing has the nerve to criticise US foreign policy and has the economic clout to not be browbeaten by Washington.

Less fortunate countries, he says, are at the mercy of the International Monetary Fund (which he calls the International Financial Mafia) and the World Trade Organisation. 'Like the mafia in Italy, they can put a threat upon any small country and have them do what they want; it's extortion.' Declining to be drawn on the question of Taiwan's reunification with the mainland, he does point out that the island would make a handy military base for the US, if they ever needed it. Furthermore, he says, as the US is the world's top exporter of arms and many government officials have ties to the highly profitable arms industry, it is not surprising the US will continue to keep Taiwan well-supplied.

Blum's concern, however, is his own country and its interference and abuses on the world stage that cause misery to millions of people.

'If you flip over the rock of American foreign policy of the past century, this is what crawls out,' he writes in his book Killing Hope. 'Invasions, bombings, overthrowing governments, suppressing movements for social change, assassinating political leaders, perverting elections, manipulating labour unions, manufacturing news, death squads, torture, biological warfare, depleted uranium, drug trafficking, mercenaries.'

Blum has written five books, The CIA: A Forgotten History (1986), Rogue State: A Guide to the World's only Superpower (2000), West-Bloc Dissident: A Cold War Political Memoir (2002), Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions Since World War II (2003) and Freeing the World to Death: Essays on the American Empire (2004).

In all of them he offers his readers a mound of well-researched information that counteracts the American propaganda machines. He holds Uncle Sam up to America's purported ideals and by shining a spotlight on world events shows the world's superpower with all its blemishes.

That spotlight extends to the Middle East and this week's Palestinian election. Blum holds out little hope that the elections in Palestine or the change in Israel's Knesset will make any difference to the Middle East theatre.

'The basic hostility remains,' he says. 'Israel says they're retaliating against terrorists and Palestinians say they're retaliating against oppressors and one can say they're both to blame.

'I would point out when you have a fight between a lion and a mouse, it's up to the lion to make concessions. There is very little Palestine can offer to curtail the suicide bombings. Even if they could promise that, it would just leave the status quo which is unbearable to the Palestinians, and what's the point?' His feelings on Washington's continued support of Israel are clear in the second part of the text that bin Laden left unquoted: 'If I were the president ... I would then inform Israel that it is no longer the 51st state of the union but - oddly enough - a foreign country.' He says once again that the US has been blatantly interfering in Palestine's elections.

'Through the National Endowment for Democracy [NED] they have unlimited amounts of money and can pay for anything that can swing votes to their side. This has been exposed.' In Rogue State he says the NED is a Trojan horse, 'Washington's specially created stand-in for the CIA', that has perverted elections from Nicaragua to Fiji by investing huge amounts of money in parties favourable to the US.

The much-trumpeted Iraqi elections are bogus too, he says.

'Imagine it was still the cold war and Hungary announced it was having an election under the Soviet occupation. The US media would laugh at it, but they would never think of saying the same thing about Iraq.'

Blum's books have become required reading for non-mainstream journalists the world over, even translated into Arabic and sold in places such as Egypt, where bin Laden probably picked up his copy. They are unrelenting in targeting the sacred cows of the American government, questioning the foundations of the US' aggressive action throughout the world and debunking the idea that the Americans stand for democracy, peace and a free market. From this perspective, he says the current trouble in Iran is not new. He says the big difference between Iran and Iraq is that 'the US is not looking to occupy Iran'.

'They want to remove any possible threat to Israel or the US occupation of Iraq. They might be content to destroy nuclear facilities and damaging them militarily, mainly for Israel.'

Of Iran's hot-headed new leader Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, he says Washington had been planning its moves long before he came to power. 'They're glad he says these outrageous things, as it will seem more justified if they invade.'