I personally suspect he's been dead since November of 2001. I think they got him at Tora Bora. Either his body was mangled beyond recognition in the initial bombing by the Air Force, or else they captured him, then quietly shot him through the head and dumped him in the Indian Ocean hundreds of miles from land wearing cement shoes.

Announce his death, and you make him a martyr forever. Put him on trial and it's a worldwide media circus that will last for years. Imprison him and Arab terrorists add "and release Osama" to their list of demands. Better to just quietly kill him and keep it a secret.

Notice that he hasn't released any videotapes of himself mugging for the cameras and chortling since before the attack on Tora Bora. Nothing verifiable and provable, known to be really from him, has been heard in three and a half years. Not one word, and this is a man who LOVES publicity.

I think he has to be dead.