We've got his phone number so why has trail gone cold?

NO-ONE has answered it in years, and the line has long been disconnected.

But more than six years after the worst terrorist atrocity on American soil, the telephone number 00873 682 505 331 remains one of the few slivers of information on the attack's main perpetrator, Osama bin Laden.

With his satellite line out of service, the al-Qaeda leader yesterday issued his latest communication via an Islamist website. Released to coincide with the 60th anniversary of the establishment of the Israeli state, it appeared unremarkable, pledging to fight for Palestine "as long as there is one true Muslim on Earth".

In the latest of 18 missives broadcast since 9/11 by the man with a £13 million bounty on his head and his allies, bin Laden said: "The participation of western leaders with the Jews in this celebration confirms that the West backs this Jewish occupation of our land, and that they stand in the Israeli corner against us. They proved this in practice by sending their forces to southern Lebanon."

Of greater significance than the message was the fact, authenticity permitting, that the 51-year-old is alive and operational.

After six years during which billions have been spent on intelligence and surveillance, the promises of a scalp remain unfulfilled, to the extent they are now deemed worthy of satire, courtesy of Morgan Spurlock's fatuous feature film, Where in the World is Osama bin Laden?.

Hollywood has drawn the same conclusions as the US government: no-one knows. The last probable sighting was in late 2001, when special forces and Afghan allies pursued a "tall man on a horse" into the mountains of Tora Bora, where it is believed he fled into an underground warren. His subsequent movements are speculation – into Pashtun, perhaps Waziristan, north to Bajaur, or even close to China in Chitral.

IF THERE is no definitive answer, explanations abound for his continuing elusiveness, something not so much down to his guile as to the incompetence of those charged with finding him.

Last month, a report by the research arm of the US Congress said Washington had no comprehensive plan for dealing with the threat posed by Pakistan's tribal areas. Most, including Michael McConnell, the US Director of National Intelligence, think bin Laden is holed up somewhere in that vast, hostile region.

Research by the Government Accountability Office said that, despite spending millions on Pakistani military operations on the Durand Line, the 1,600-mile border region with Afghanistan, the US has "not met its national security goals to destroy terrorist threats and close the safe haven".

Little wonder, some might say, given that only a year after 9/11, the Pentagon withdrew the Fifth Special Forces Group – the only commando team with soldiers conversant in Pashto, Dari and Arabic – to replace them with the Seventh Group, whose main operational tongue is Spanish.

Over the past six years, there have been spurious claims regarding bin Laden's health, several suggesting he was dead. An uncorroborated French intelligence report suggested the al-Qaeda figurehead had died of typhoid two years ago, while no less a person than Pakistan's president, Pervez Musharraf, suggested he had probably succumbed to kidney failure as far back as 2002.

Yesterday's communiqué – like the majority of bin Laden's broadcasts – was delivered in audio only. That, it has been suggested, may betray his frail physical state; or it could simply be caution on his part, given that a US geologist was able to identify rock strata in front of which he was standing while delivering one of his early video messages.

WHAT the future holds in the hunt for bin Laden is unclear, but Hillary Clinton and John McCain have been vocal on the issue during the US presidential campaign.

"I believe that the next president will have to have an effective, strong strategy against terrorism," Mrs Clinton said.

"We're gonna have to end the war in Iraq and try to win the war in Afghanistan and, you know, all these years after 9/11, we still haven't brought to justice the mastermind of the attack that devastated my city, and I take that personally."

On Thursday, meanwhile, Mr McCain made a pledge that, if elected, bin Laden would be dead or captured come 2013.

But for the moment, the man known variously as the Sheikh, the Director, the Emir and the world's most wanted terrorist, remains at large, his phone off the hook, the bounty still waiting to be collected.