Cairo, Egypt ? Two messages from Osama bin Laden in a matter of days have revived the game of questions over his health and whereabouts, but they also made clear he is al-Qaida’s propaganda “top gun,” able to draw attention in the West and strike a chord among sympathizers.

In a new video released Tuesday, bin Laden’s voice was heard commemorating one of the Sept. 11 suicide hijackers and calling on young Muslims to follow his example in martyring themselves in attacks.

It came on the heels of a video released Saturday containing the first new images of the terror movement’s leader in nearly three years. It showed him urging Americans to convert to Islam and railing against capitalism, globalization and democracy as failed philosophies.

Both releases on Web sites used by Islamic extremists may in part be an attempt to use bin Laden’s charisma to win over supporters in an audience of growing importance for al-Qaida – Muslim converts and immigrants from Muslim countries living in the West, particularly Europe.

Militants from both groups have been implicated in several plots inside Europe in recent years, and the anti-globalization rhetoric could be aimed at giving disenchanted Muslims there further reason to join his cause, along with his traditional condemnation of U.S. policy in the Mideast.

The two videos, timed to mark the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, also made a splash in the U.S. at a time when the presidential campaign and falling support for the war in Iraq have prompted a debate on how America should be fighting terrorism.

Presidential candidates weighed in on the question of whether the man President Bush once vowed to take “dead or alive” remains a threat.

Republican Fred Thompson called bin Laden a “symbolic” figure, while Rudolph Giuliani insisted the al-Qaida leader needed to be taken down.

U.S. intelligence agencies, meanwhile, are poring over bin Laden’s messages, looking for clues to the 50-year-old’s health and location.

Little was immediately evident, except for bin Laden’s new beard – dyed a dark black from the mostly gray of previous videos.

The images in Saturday’s video were clearly recent – made at least since June, because bin Laden mentioned British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took office that month, and perhaps done as recently as early August.

Because bin Laden’s image moves for only a handful of minutes in the first tape and not at all in the second, questions are being asked about his health.

Magnus Ranstorp, a terrorism expert at the Swedish National Defense College, said trying to guess at bin Laden’s physical condition from the images is pure speculation.

But it is clear that the al-Qaida leader is plugged in, he said.

“He’s very much up on current events, but it is more than that. Bin Laden has learned to skillfully package and tap into issues that have political currency and a wide resonance outside his normal constituency,” Ranstorp said.

The messages end a long dry spell for bin Laden – his last video had been released in October 2004, while his last audiotape came out in July 2006.