Around the anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, al-Qaeda officials typically cannot resist invading the consciousness of decent people with reminders of their past misdeeds, along with the fact that they still lurk menacingly in the shadows. This year, though, for the first time in a long while, terrorism financier Osama bin Laden himself apparently has weighed in via a recent videotape.

In my opinion, analysts spend far too much time studying such releases, trying to determine if they are authentic and what they might mean. Does bin Laden make reference to recent events? Is he conversant with key issues? Is it really him; in other words, is he alive?

Informed or ignorant, real or not, alive or dead, bin Laden long ago reached iconic stature in terrorism circles. But he affects us only to the extent that we allow it.

Frankly, he and his ilk should save their insulting announcements.

Even without them, we have every reason to remember 9-11. Even without them, we have every reason to expand our minds with knowledge about extremism and bolster our psyches for the long haul. Even without them, we have every reason to continue shaping defensive and offensive measures to thwart the problem. Even without them, we have every reason to work more closely with our allies on multilateral strategies against terrorism. Even without them, we have every reason to position ourselves to prevail against the scourge that they propagate.

However, there is one aspect of bin Laden’s newest bilge-spewing that caught my attention. Spruced up, with a trimmed, darkened beard – as if he were conscious of the need to display a better broadcast image – the aging miscreant mentioned no clear threat. Rather, his main point was for the United States to convert to Islam.

Pity that he has never taken his own advice. If bin Laden would embrace, as most Muslims do, a true interpretation of Islam – and not the narrow, perverted, opportunistic version that justifies his murderous excesses – there would be no conflict with others of the faith, no conflict with the West, no conflict with anyone. Indeed, bin Laden would shed his own inner conflict.

But that would make too much sense. Instead, he has seized upon just about any issue to distract attention from the shallowness of his ugly, self-serving mission.

For example, does anyone really care about what bin Laden has to say about global warming? Or about certain world leaders’ “flagrant disregard” for human intellect?

Well, they should not. His reach for what some have called a more philosophical level of discussion is just a ploy. The absence of a specific threat could be an attempt to lull people into thinking that that the worst has passed. In truth, the next attack – and many of the ones after that – already have been planned.

There is not a kinder, gentler al-Qaeda in the works. Quite the opposite. It will use every weapon at its disposal, not merely in Iraq but around the world.

And there is not a kinder, gentler bin Laden in the works. New image aside, he is the same manipulative, conniving troublemaker with blood on his hands that he always has been.

On the sixth anniversary of 9-11, we are not fooled. Nor can we afford ever again to make the mistake of underestimating the terrorist threat.