Is Osama Bin Laden dead?

Hope this is the right place to ask this question!Let me start by saying I personally believe he is! My reasons for believing this are based in two things
1:I seem to recall reading or hearing somewhere,that he has kidney problems,and is reliant on a dialysis machine,which would be very difficult to use when effectively on the run!
2:All the recent video releases made by al qaeda have featured Al Zawahiri,cant remember the last time Osama Bin Laden appeared in a video rant,must be at least 3yrs ago or more!
Again I hope this is the right place to ask the question,and apologise if the question causes offence to anyone,for whatever reason.

I think roughly have a year ago there was something "leaked" to the press from the french secret service that the syrien or saudi(?) intel reported him to be dead. That was denied soon afterwards by french and syrien/saudi officials.
Who knows...
But I observe that his precens in the media and peoples minds has decreased trasticly. Just a personal feeling.
He's not that important anymore at all. Also interesting is that in Afghanistan there are always reports of fighting with taliban, but not with al quaeda; that has moved more into Iraq. That's my impression.

Yes there is definatly an Al Qaeda in Iraq,also have heard that the border areas in Pakistan may be sheltering a large Al Qaeda presence,not heard anything of Bin Laden being there though.

Prhaps this will satisfy you-

I think he's just a figurehead- that may also explain why he wasn't killed or captured in '01/02.