Al-Qaida feared targeting superships

Editor's Note: The following report is excerpted from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium online newsletter published by the founder of WND. Subscriptions are $99 a year or, for monthly trials, just $9.95 per month for credit card users, and provide instant access for the complete reports.

Idled ships

LONDON – Agents for the British intelligence agency say they have established that Kim Jong-il's regime in North Korea has supplied al-Qaida with sophisticated limpet mines they fear will be used against a "ghost fleet" of 500-plus ships and superships, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

The agents, working in Asia to monitor the latest exchange of gunfire between North Korean and South Korean warships, have reported such an attack would have a disastrous effect on London's shipping insurance market – with the potential of being far larger than the losses in last year's market crash.

The fleet, larger than the combined navies of the U.S. and Britain, is anchored in one of the world's least accessible waterways: the remote Johor Coast at the southern tip of Malaysia.

Fifty miles east of Singapore, it also is close to Indonesia, the launching point, MI6 agents say, for the next attack by al-Qaida terrorists.

The value of the fleet is in the billions of dollars. But in their equatorial backwater they generally are guarded by only a handful of sailors, often armed with no more than a pistol or rifle to ward off any attack.

Keep in touch with the most important breaking news stories about critical developments around the globe with Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, the premium, online intelligence news source edited and published by the founder of WND.

A joint MI6/SAS team that carried out a survey of the area described it as "tailor-made for an al-Qaida attack."

The fleet consists largely of container ships and tankers. They have been anchored there by their owners and on the advice of the economists of the world's governments because of the global recession.

Usually rented out as the camels of the high seas, transporting anything from crude oil to Christmas gifts, the recession has left them out of work.

A container ship which a year ago cost $50,000 a day to rent is available for $5,000. Economically, it is cheaper to park them off the coastline of palm trees and jungle – and hope no terrorist comes along and blows up a 130,000-ton tanker.

For the complete report and full immediate access to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, subscribe now.