What I’ve believed for a long time about Osama bin Laden — that he’s the world’s most talkative corpse — is starting to leak out from sources in Pakistan: Bin Laden could be dead, whereabouts unknown: Zardari.

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari said on Monday that the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden remained a mystery and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.

Speaking to international media, Zardari said U.S. officials had told him that they had no trace of the al Qaeda chief, although they habitually say he is most likely in Pakistan.

Pakistan’s own intelligence agencies were no wiser, either, Zardari said.

“There is no news,” the president said. “They obviously feel that he does not exist anymore but that’s not confirmed, we can’t confirm that.”

I believe he was dead years ago, maybe even during the first push into Afghanistan after 9/11, but that both sides — the jihadis and the US government — have reasons for not admitting it.