Six years after the 11 September 2001 attacks, Usamah Bin-Ladin has reappeared, though he was thought to be dead. The video, which shows him with rejuvenated features and a nicely tinted beard, contains nothing very new. It is an anti-US and anti-Western tirade that takes up the theories of left-wing intellectual Noam Chomsky, the bedside reading of the alterglobalists, who now share it with the worldwide terrorist said to be in hiding in a cave somewhere between Pakistan and Afghanistan. The fact remains that Bin Ladin is still with us. Whether genuine or counterfeit, the message comes on the very eve of the sixth anniversary of the attacks that changed the face of the world. On the eve, also, of the major debate that begins in the United States this week to assess the strategy in Iraq. As every 11 September, everybody is starting to talk again about the brains behind the attacks six years ago. Since then Bin-Ladin has become an icon, a mythical figure, a source of inspi! ration for the world's jihadists, without any real operational role in the attacks shaking both the Western and the Muslim worlds. His video shows this. Public enemy number one brandishes no explicit threats and issues no direct appeal for further attacks. Though he is just as frightening a figure as ever, and though his every word fanaticizes his troops, his reappearance on the Internet is principally a propaganda exercise. The terrorist tide set in motion six years ago continues to advance across the world, without his needing to orient it precisely. Recent days have proved this: in the Maghreb and Europe, organizations identifying with Al-Qa'idah have decided to strike and succeeded in causing carnage. In Algeria, two suicide attacks within the space of 72 hours claimed 50 lives. The first almost killed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. The branch of Al-Qa'idah in the Maghreb, founded 11 September 2006 to bring together the jihadists of North Africa and the Sahel, claimed ! responsibility for the attacks. In Denmark, eight people were arrested , charged with maintaining links with Al-Qa'idah. In Germany, the security services thwarted plans for what would have been deadly attacks targeting US bases and Frankfurt airport. Six years after 11 September, the terrorist threat has not lessened. George W Bush is a right to want to combat the extremists in order to drive it back. This grants him an argument whereby to mobilize public opinion behind his policy in Baghdad. It is necessary, he says, to prevent Iraq, which Bin-Laden spoke about at length, from becoming a ''sanctuary,'' from which Al-Qa'idah could ''launch attacks on the United States or any other ally.'' The previous Bin-Laden video came on the eve of the 2004 presidential election and helped Bush a great deal against [Democratic Party contender John] Kerry. This time, the image of the Al-Qa'idah leader comes just before the Congressional debate on US strategy in Iraq. A strange coincidence.