Four Muslim fanatics who planned "bloodbaths" at US targets in Germany in an attempt to create a "second September 11" have been jailed. Fritz Gelowicz, the ring leader, got 12 years, his German sidekick Daniel Schneider - both converts to Islam - 11 years while two accomplices were sentenced to five years each for their roles in a plot to detonate explosives 100 times more powerful than those used in the London Underground bombings of July 2005. The four men, known as the "Sauerland Cell" after the tourist region where they stockpiled massive amounts of chemicals for the bombs, were jailed at the end of a nine-month trial. In a rare move, prosecutors allowed them to plea-bargain their guilt in return for what the defendants hoped would be far shorter sentences. All have given detailed accounts of their terrorist training at a camp in Pakistan's "bandit country" of Waziristan together with details of the US bases that they planned to blitz with their home-made devices for the Islamic Jihadist Union. "The confessions of the accused were the most comprehensive talks concerning terrorism ever heard in a German court of law," said Rolf Tophoven, director of the institute of terrorism research and security policy in Essen. "They gave an exact description of what was going on in the terror training camps in Pakistan."

Instead of creating intelligent policy, Obama seeks to solve problems by giving speeches and then holding events in celebration of his words.