Chapter 58

Singapore
November 15, 2006


Straits Times

Fire Guts Chinatown Shophouse

Singapore: A fire late yesterday afternoon gutted a shophouse on Boon Hat Street in Chinatown.

A neighbor called the emergency services. A Civil Defence spokeswoman said their fire emergency response vehicle arrived in less than five minutes, but by that time, the hundred year old shophouse, which housed a ginseng and spice trading enterprise, was well ablaze.

Firefighters extinguished the fire, which caused extensive damage to the shophouse as well as minor damage to adjoining properties.

Two badly burned bodies were found inside the shophouse.

A police spokesman said, “One of the bodies is confirmed to be that of the proprietor Chun Liang, a forty two year old Chinese national with Singaporean residency.”

“The identity of the other victim is unknown, but we believe it was a customer, unfortunate enough to be in the shophouse at the time of the fire. The fire spread quickly and the victims were trapped in a storeroom at the rear of the shophouse.”

Madam Soo, a neighbor, described Chun as, “A quiet, polite man, who kept to himself.”

Chun Liang is not believed to have relatives in Singapore.

The Civil Defence spokeswoman said, “A preliminary investigation indicates the fire started in a poorly installed air conditioner and there were no suspicious circumstances to the blaze.”

The spokeswoman added, “If the bodies are unclaimed in forty eight hours, they will be cremated, in line with a recently announced change to regulations concerning indigent and unidentified deaths. The victim’s ashes will be held in storage, in case relatives come forward to claim the remains. DNA samples will be taken for future identification.”

***

Charles answered his phone.

Charles, it's Jason. I have just received some feedback from the Singapore Government on your contract. I thought you'd like to hear it.”

“Yes, I would.”

“Needless to say, they are happy with your performance, especially your role in stopping the hijacking of the LNG carrier. I'm not surprised, since they got to hear about some of our secret technology that could be very useful to their anti-piracy efforts.”

Charles responded, “In the circumstances, they needed to know.”

“Well, not everyone would agree with that assessment, but I doubt there will be any fallout from you letting that particular cat out of the bag. The Singaporean's are also very happy about the guidance you gave the Underwater Surveillance Device project. In fact, so happy, they want to offer you an extension to your contract.”

Charles responded, “I'm pleased my efforts were appreciated, but I don't think so.”

“I won't try and persuade you, Charles. You did everything I expected of you and more besides. In fact, I have a new project back here at DARPA that should be right up your street.”

Charles used the opportunity to ask Jason a question. “Maybe you can explain one thing to me, Jason. I can understand why Islamic terrorists would plan and execute a terrorism operation like this, but I hear there was substantial North Korean involvement and no one seems able to explain to me why they would be involved.”

Jason replied, “I think I can explain that to you without giving away any secrets you shouldn't hear about.

“The North Koreans have been trying for several years to interest South Korea in a natural gas and crude oil pipeline across their territory from the Russian border to South Korea. Their regime is chronically short of foreign exchange and they desperately need the money it would bring, in both construction revenues and ongoing transit fees. The latter is especially important to them, because a long-term, stable source of revenue would keep the regime in power for a long time, or so they believe. The South Koreans are, for obvious reasons, reluctant to give the North control over their energy supplies.

“The North Koreans felt the South would be more amenable to their proposal and less concerned about vulnerabilities to supply disruption by the North, if the vulnerability to disruptions of their current energy supplies were, let's say, demonstrated. I understand the original plan called specifically for the hijacking of South Korean ships.”

Charles said, “You mean the North Koreans funded and supplied the biggest act of maritime terrorism the world has ever seen, as a negotiating tactic?”

“That appears to be the case. Although, we will never know if they intended to go through with it, because Islamic terrorists from an organization called Tanzeem Qaedat al-Jihad, an offshoot of Jemaah Islamiyah, took over the plan for their own ends.”

“That's one of the craziest things I have ever heard.”

“Crazy like a fox perhaps. Some analysts think the North Koreans intended that Islamic terrorists take over the plan they created, funded and supplied. Thus creating another layer of separation between them and the terrorist hijackings. Remember, no one directly involved in the hijackings knew the North Koreans were behind the plot, and without our secret satellite and data mining programs, we would never have made the connection. Even then, were it not for one careless phone call lasting a couple of seconds that led us to one of their secret operatives, we would have assumed the North Korean involvement was limited to selling equipment to the terrorists.

“Besides, this is North Korea we are talking about. Very little of what they do, fits most of the world's definition of sane and rational.”

***

Carl picked up the phone and waited for the Assistant Director of the CIA's Clandestine Service to come on the secure line to Washington.

“What have you got for me Carl?”

”The Singaporeans are offering unlimited access to their two North Korean prisoners.”

“What do they want in exchange?”

“Access to our small boat tracking data in the Malacca and Singapore Straits.”

“That's a big ask. No one outside the US Intelligence community gets that data.”

“They say they are uniquely placed to utilize the data to the benefit of all nations using the Strait.”

“That will sell well on the Hill, but I'm more interested in what kind of meat is in the sandwich and how much of it we get. Hardly a day goes by without I have to explain why we can't come up with more human intelligence.”

The Singaporeans say, one of the prisoners is singing like a canary. He's giving up all kinds of interesting information.”

“Well, they would say that.”

Carl said, “They are offering more. They say, in exchange for access to the small boat data they are prepared to use it to apprehend individuals of particular interest involved in piracy from Indonesian territory, then rendition them to us. That is, after a short delay, while they interrogate them.

“Now, that's starting to sound like a deal we might be interested in.”

“There are some conditions attached to the offer.”

“I'm sure there are, but go ahead and start talking about the terms of a deal, and I'll try and muster support for it here in Washington.”

Carl said, “There's one other thing.”

“What's that?”

“They again raised the rendition of our prisoner to them.”

“So they can hang him?”

“I'd say that's highly likely.”

The Assistant Director said, “The prisoner has given us all the information he knows. If it were my decision, I'd hand him over today. He was responsible for nineteen deaths and could have killed tens of thousands more. As far as I am concerned he deserves to hang, but the Administration doesn't want the political storm handing him over would cause. So, he'll stay in his nice cozy prison cell, until we decide holding him serves no further purpose and we release him. When we do, his life expectancy will drop dramatically, because I don't think the Singaporeans will forget he caused the death of eighteen of their elite troops.”

Carl said, “I'll tell them, the answer's still no.”

The head of the CIA's Clandestine Service put down the phone. In two hours, he had to testify before a congressional committee investigating why, in light of the intelligence available, a terrorism alert wasn't issued prior to the Malacca Strait hijackings.

The CIA was going to take some of the heat, but the main event would be hanging a Naval Officer out to dry, someone by the name of Braddock.


The End