A lot of people seem to make a sport out of identifying the anti-christ, dating back to the reign of Nero. Personally, I don't think Osama bin Laden makes the best candidate, too clearly identifiable as evil. I'm thinking someon emore underhanded, like George Soros.
As for a timeline, I think we still have a way to go, although I think it could easily be sometime this century.
I think the bible predicts many anti-Christs. Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot... all the most notorious mass murderers of history (million victim club)... hard to call them anything but antiChrists. Saddam was a piker.
Probably not. If you want a profile of the antichrist, I submit the following:
He will be physically attractive. He'll have a wonderful personality, a ready smile and a firm and friendly handshake. He'll be an effective speaker, highly intelligent and very persuasive. He'll preach conservative economic policy, low taxation, the strength of the market, etc. resulting ins great economic prosperity.
He'll be a flatterer. He'll make peole comfortable in their sins and so be immensly popular.
He will be an effective arguer against religion. He will persecute Christianity with the support of the people.
He won't seize power, he'll be given power.
He will discredit God by claiming to be god, not so much as a feed to his own ego, but as a way to convince people that they can safely ignore, persecute and imprison these nut cases who believe in God.
That's my take. I don't think anyone in the Christian community is going to spot him until well into the game.