It seems as though Andrew Milner is the one who's getting his knickers in a twist -- and his sense of proportion. Britain didn't declare war on 1,4 billion Muslims. Maybe there is some Muslim disenchantment with UK foreign policy in Iraq -- so in future we'll just clear all foreign policy measures with Muslims first, shall we? What else should Britain, or any other sovereign country, hand over to Muslims? There's far more disenchantment worldwide with cowardly, brainwashed Muslims like these, who try to kill ordinary innocent people just because they don't happen to share their own perverse and blinkered mediaeval beliefs. Since when has Britain been the 3rd most hated nation in the world? Says who? Is there a league table or something? Ah, must be an opinion poll ...

Karen North, Tokyo, Japan

Payback time. US and UK military have declared "open season" on Iraqi civilians. And you're getting your knickers in a twist over incompetent attacks that injured no one other that the perpetrators and caused a bit of damage to Glasgow Airport Terminal. Get a sense of proportion, please. A day like that in downtown Baghdad would be seen as a major success story. "Only harmless car bombs."
With Britain now the third most hated nation in the world, seriously what do you expect? Declaring war on 1.4 billion Muslim; not the smartest move. Do you still believe that Muslim disenchantment with UK has nothing to do with Britain's foreign policy, namely Britain's occupation of Iraq? Flush that piece of Blair BS out of your head new guy.

Andrew Milner, Yokohama, Kanagawa

I'm a Muslim. And I can tell you those people are NOT. No one realizes that they may be protraying themselves as Muslims, as Allah's followers but honestly, they may be of another faith or understanding. They could be using Islam as a cover-up to harm others and it's making Muslims feel insecure and vulnerable in thier own birthplace. It's possible but no ones wants to believe the truth.

One of the July 7th bombers used to live just a street away from my house. Apparently, he was a 'converted Muslim'. It just shows anyone could pretend to be Muslim and it's a fixed hate towards followers.

Rezwana Khan, Aylesbury, UK

Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it - Marcus Tullius CICERO

" A nation can survive its fools and even the ambitious, but it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself. For the traitor appears not a traitor, he speaks in accents familiar to his victims, and he wears their face and their arguments, he appeals to the baseness that lies deep in the hearts of all men. He rots the soul of a nation, he works secretly and unknown in the night to undermine pillars of the city, he infects the body politic so that it can no longer resist. A murderer is less to fear. THE TRAITOR IS THE PLAGUE.

Sylvia Coupe, Brisane, Australia

My Penguin Classics copy of The Koran consists of 434 pages. Of these 434 pages, I found 288 pages that contain some form of violence -- invariably aimed at the unbelievers. This could hardly be characterized as promoting a peaceful religion.

Roger W. Gardner, Newburyport, MA USA

When will "infidels" understand that the very evil Muslims are the real Muslims of Islam, and the nice Muslims are not followerers of Islam? Read the Qur'an, Taqiyya, Hadiths, Sunnah, Sira, and other Islamic historical documents, and you'll see what I mean. Educate yourselves and you'll see that the evil Muslims didn't hijack anything. In reality, the nice Muslims aren't following their religion, and the very evil Muslims are following the historical documents of Islam. Educate yourselves so that you'll know what you are talking about. The nice Muslims are more like Jesus Christ than they are like Muhammad. Educate yourselves, please!

Philip, Houston, USA-Texas

These people are not soldiers of any religion or cause and should not be regarded as such. They are simply murderers and to use a smokescreen named Islam is an insult to all right thinking persons Muslim or otherwise. There punishment will be meted out to them on the day of judgment

Freda , Ripon, North Yorkshire

"Five men who hoped to kill thousands of people with a vast fertiliser bomb were described by a judge yesterday as ruthless and devious misfits who had betrayed their country ..."

If a Zulu happens to be born in Alaska that doesn't make him an Inuit.

steve risher , san jose, costa rica

I'm British. These people aren't. The title of the article is an insult.

Fabien, Luxembourg, Luxembourg

Entirely agree with G. Cousins comment but would go further in that life should really mean life: their entire life, so they die in prison. Far more sensible is to bring back hanging or perhaps a more modern day form of execution for these fanatics who are so eager to die.

N Frederic, london, uk

Betrayed THEIR country? Which country is that then? Cetainly not mine....

John, London, UK

The judge described Khyam, 25, as “ruthless, devious, artful and dangerous”. Um, am I missing something? He sent his subordinate to purchase the key ingredient for making the exposives in a customised Audi with rap music blaring , flashily dressed and asked for enough fertilizer to cover 5 football pitches for his "allotment". He then paid £207 to store £90 of fertilizer and refused to answer direct questioning about why he would do such a thing.

Had Khyam actually been devious and artful, I doubt that the Security Service would have heard a thing until a large bang went off. Luckily for the UK we got the Z-team rather than the A-Team.

Ben, Reading,

I hope these men are never released from prison .. if they get out after 25 years, they'll most likely just try again to harm innocent people. I'd rather see my taxes help pay to keep them locked away from decent society forever than see these dangerous creatures go free ever again.

S. Main, Turriff,

Shirley, what on earth is going on with you? If Canada "isn't a free society and a totalitarian state" how did you do this post? Underground, behind closed doors, window shades drawn?Come on Shirley, wake up. Forget the stuff you learnt in freshmen college. The '60's are over.

arden olson, high bridge, NJ, US

It is never too late to wake up to the threat from the Islamic evil that lurks amongst us.The threat is real and on going,and let us not kid ouselves it is more widespread than you think.and so longy as they remain here the threat will be there.
It is therefore time for Britain and Europe to get their act together and start taking some real action. In the opinion of many, the time for bending over backward to please the Muslim community should come to an end,as it never worked, for it is taken by them as a sign of weakness and a reason to demand more. If they will not accept the way of life here and the rest of Europe then they are no longer welcome here and should leave the country and go somewhere else where they had feel more at home.

Chris Jaggo, Stockton-on-Tees, UK

I find it amazing that we should even consider a time when these people might be eligble for parole. They think their religion dictates that they kill all non believers. This is never going to change even with a lengthy stay in prison. The minimum sentence for these people should be 50 years to ensure they die in prison. Let the liberal elite in this country think about the innocent people for a change instead of feeling sorry for these psychopaths.

G Cousin, Mirfield,

It is time for a Reformation of Islam. This noble religion is being hijacked and perverted into a philosphy of death. Is there no teacher, no Imman, no leader willing to speak out and to speak out with conviction against murder and death? Where is Islam's Nelson Mandela? Where is their Ghandi? All this death and hate in Allah's name?

Western society is far from perfect but the fact that democracy allows for a population to vote against hegemony, to vote against war, to vote for peace cedes us some kind of moral high ground. Iraq and other nations in the middle east have become so used to torture, death and injustice under dictators and religious fanatics that they now kill innocents of all and any religions. Why not attack China? Greenland? Latvia? Wales?

Palestinians convince us of their rights by throwing each other off of buildings. Iran? Need I go on?

Intolerance and hate has turned Shia against Sunni, the barbarity of beheadings and executions is their religious truth. Tragedy

richard m, new york, us

At the moment, it is not in the interest of Muslims to attack the UK mainland, the borders are wide open and more militants are arriving at will. Once the numbers of Muslims passes a certain point, then from a militant Muslim standpoint it will make "sense" to start the attacks in earnest.

At the moment, these attacks are planned by a small minority of mavericks against the wishes of mainstream UK Muslim opinion. I hope I am wrong, but in time this could change,

Paul, Parker, CO USA

In this Quote:

A week after their arrests, Mohammed Babar, an American al-Qaeda operative who trained with Khyam in Pakistan, was arrested in New York. He “crumbled”, pleaded guilty to terrorist offences and agreed to give evidence in return for immunity from prosecution for the fertiliser plot.... The intelligence service compiled a huge list of friends, relatives and contacts, many with multiple identities.

We see the invaluable contribution of confession and the incrimination of associates. Torture needs to be legalized for these exception cases.

William Hooper, London,

I think these brain-washed fanatics should be executed and not be a burden to the british taxpaying public, the very public they were seeking to destroy. But no doubt the"human rights" and the"general do-gooders" of this country would be shouting from the rooftops if this were to happen, is it any wonder this country is such a soft touch target. If you had vermin running around your home causing problems, would you catch it, put it in a cage and then feed,water and clothe it for the rest of its life?. No......you would have it destroyed, then over a period of time that vermin society would be wiped out. If these bombers are willing to lay down their lives for their beliefs, let them do so.... but under a british lawful way of life, thus sending out a message to all would be activistes, that they will not be tolerated and this country will no longer be a soft touch society!!!!!!!!!!!!

John H, Bradford,

Deport!

Jim, Indianapolis, Indiana USA

Never to be released? To die in jail?
To me the death penalty would make far more sense.
The blanket aversion which many 'civilised' countries display towards the death-penalty may prove to be their undoing.
There is both a time to kill, and a time to refrain from killing.

Dave, Wellington, New Zealand

These animals have distorted the meaning of Islam and are in no way representative of the Muslims I know. I have friends and neighbors of the Muslim faith who strongly condemn this perversion of their faith.

Ira, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania USA

kudos to British Police and MI5 for getting these worms ! these are not Men , - they are cowards who attack the innocent and unprotected. The Buddhist theory of Cause and Effect : Politics makes monsters out of men - pandering to Religious issues leads to miscreants using this to plant fundamentalism. Stop the teachers of hate and the imams who brainwash the Muslim youth . Muslim leaders should Ensure that the Muslim community stands up in protest against their own who are engaging in terrorism or virulent talk and speech. It is when ALL muslims who are peace minded stand up and say "This is not ISLAM - this is not what we want our religion to be portrayed as" and condem the few who engage in radicalism that this battle will be won

Islam does not teach anyone to blow up or kill others - Islam speaks of "Jihad" certainly - but what these misguided souls dont understand is that Islam is telling all its followers to fight this JIHAD from WITHIN - Jihad against evil and violence

nadir, bombay,

I am a Muslim. What those terrorists have done or tried to do have nothing to do with Islam. It is an attempted murder, and nothing more. No Muslim would even allow them to say that what they did was in the name of Islam. Any Muslim who would sympathize with this is no longer a Muslim. May be was never really a Muslim at all.
Not only that Murder, in any way shape or form, is forbidden, but also abiding by the simplest law of the land one lives in is an Islamic duty. While I pray that the perpetrators are made example of, I also pray that the innocent Muslims do not pay a heavy price for these acts. I live in the US, but my heart tonight is with the Brits.

Mohamed Ghabour, MD, Valrico, Florida , USA

GO AWAY - all Muslims who firstly do this kind of thing and plot it.

Secondly, all Muslims who "sympathise" with this kind of thing, for example the 10,000 the Times reported who "sympathise" wiith Al Qaeda.

Go, please. Your welcome here has expired.

Joe, Manchester,

An amazing success for MI5 and the British police!
For those who benefited from the advantages of a free society in Britain and sought to harm it, they should not only be jailed for life but jailed in solitary confinement !
Let them lose their sanity

David Shulman, Tel Aviv, Israel

here here, do as Micheal says and don't let them see any friends/associaetes in jail, then they'll crumble.

Stephanie, Kent,

Mario, it's not CSIS, it's the military CSE, Communications Security Establishment. CSE, NSA, GCHQ, etc are the Anglo-Americans Big Brother. See James Bramford's books. And Canada isn't a free society, it's a totalitarian state.

Shirley Jackson, Oliver, BC, Canada

An American, a Canadian, various British citizens (by birth, no less!). They certainly enjoyed the fruits of a free society, whether educationally, work or otherwise. Now let them feel the wrath of the very societies they derived benefits from but yet sought to savagely harm. Good work, CSIS, FBI and MI-5.

Mario, Miami, FL US

The security services clearly need even more funding for operations and manpower than they have at present. The country neeeds to wake up to the fact that the frontline of the war is here, not in Afghanistan, and the enemy, sadly, are deranged Britons who imagine that terror advances their cause.

michael clarke, london, uk

An amazing piece of detecting and surveillance. My only concern is that one day these "things" may be paroled. I think it is necessary that for people convicted of terrorism charges, life must mean life. Never to be released. To die in jail. Their object was to kill and maim perhaps hundreds of innocent people. They should be seperated from each other, their activity in jail monitored and their access to the outside world limited.

Michael, Sydney,