Just days after Osama bin Laden launched a menacing Webcast to coincide with the sixth anniversary of his attacks on America, Republican leaders are deeply divided over whether the head of Al Qaeda remains a danger and whether he should belatedly be brought to justice.

The dissonance began yesterday in the White House, where President Bush’s homeland security adviser, Frances Townsend, played down the importance of Mr. bin Laden’s Friday message. The terrorist leader, who is believed to be hiding on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan, railed against capitalism and condemned America’s invasion of Iraq.

Ms. Townsend shrugged off Mr. bin Laden’s first public utterance since June 2006. “This is about the best he can do. This is a man on the run, from a cave, who’s virtually impotent other than these tapes,” she told “Fox News Sunday.”

However, Ms. Townsend’s views appeared to contradict those of the president, who, speaking from Sydney, Australia, yesterday, described the Webcast as “a reminder about the dangerous world in which we live.”

Senator McCain immediately made clear that he disagreed with the White House and, in a criticism of Mr. Bush, promised he would make it a top priority of his presidency to find, capture, or kill Mr. bin Laden.

“He continues to communicate. He continues to lead. And he continues to be a symbol for them of leadership in this radical hatred and evil radical Islamic extremism,” Mr. McCain said on ABC’s “This Week.”

Mr. McCain joined Mayor Giuliani in wanting Mr. bin Laden captured.

“The bad thing is we haven’t captured him yet and we haven’t brought him to justice,” Mr. Giuliani said Friday. “I for one think that’s a very important thing to do. … The way Islamic terrorism works, individual figures are enormously important. So that if you could take him out, I think you’d have an impact on their ability to function. We shouldn’t push this aside as a secondary objective.”

Other leading Republican presidential candidates played down the influence of the terrorist leader.

Mitt Romney called Mr. bin Laden “deluded” and said he welcomed the Webcast. “I was, in some respects, thankful that he reminded the people of the world what the face of evil looks like,” the former Massachusetts governor said.

Fred Thompson, the day after he announced his run for the White House, dismissed the danger posed by Mr. bin Laden, calling him “more symbolism than anything else.” “We need to catch him and we surely need to deal with him, but if he disappeared tomorrow we still have this problem,” the former Tennessee senator said.

Later, when asked whether he had not underestimated the importance of Mr. bin Laden remaining at large, Mr. Thompson changed course, saying, “He ought to be caught and killed.”

Mr. McCain was quick to point out what he perceives as Mr. Thompson’s lack of judgment, apparently seeking to show he is stronger on the issue of national security. The Arizona senator seemed to relish the chance to highlight what he senses to be his main conservative rival’s weakness and lack of experience.

Asked yesterday about Mr. Thompson’s remarks, Mr. McCain quickly contradicted the former “Law and Order” star’s assessment that Mr. bin Laden was a mere symbol.

“He’s more than a symbol. He’s motivating and recruiting using the Internet as we speak. He’s a threat. It’s very important that we get him. I’ll get him,” Mr. McCain said.

The failure of the allied forces to capture or kill Mr. bin Laden when he escaped, first to the caves of Tora Bora, then to the lawless Afghan-Pakistani border region, has caused repeated embarrassment to the Bush administration.

Six days after the attacks of September 11, 2001, the president let it be known he wanted the terrorist leader captured. “I want justice. And there’s an old poster out West, I recall, that said, ‘Wanted Dead or Alive,'” he said then.

When the invasion of Afghanistan failed to catch Mr. bin Laden, the president expressed indifference to the terrorist leader’s plight. “We haven’t heard from him in a long time,” Mr. Bush said in March 2002. “I truly am not that concerned about him. I was concerned about him when he had taken over a country. … We shoved him out more and more on the margins. He has no place to train Al Qaeda killers anymore.”

The failure to bring Mr. bin Laden to justice became an issue that Senator Kerry used in the 2004 presidential election, though the president said a bin Laden Webcast just before polling ensured his re-election.

“I thought it would help remind people that if bin Laden doesn’t want Bush to be the president, something must be right with Bush,” Mr. Bush told a reporter from the Washington Examiner.