Right now Milosevic on on trial, accused of more killings than Bin Laden. In Ruanda trials are going on of people involved in killings on a vastly greater scale. And of course there was Nuremberg, another few notches up.

As war criminals go, Bin Laden doesn't really compete with the big boys.

If he's put on trial, there's going to be some way of pinning down the truth. If he isn't there's going to be conspiracy theories for ever, and Bin Ladens will be turning up all over the place like Elvis Presleys for the rest of the century, but with lethal potential.