I caught the tail end of an interview with a (BBC I believe) correspondent who had visited and interviewed Bin Laden relatively recently. The most telling point I think was that for most of the time of the "interview" Bin Laden 'devoured' (the correspondent's word) copies of Saudi newspapers the correspondent had with him. It appeared his communications were so sparse that he was not aware current affairs in his home country, so the idea that he is actively controlling terrorist operations seems unlikely. That is not to say that he does not approve of them, or even finance them indirectly, but it does seem to reduce the likelyhood of direct involvement.

Pete M