Looking around the world for a backwater far from the arenas of terrorist conflict in the Middle East, al-Qaeda found what it needed in the distant South Pacific island state of Tonga.
Although at first glance an unlikely ally for the world's most feared terrorist group, the one-time island paradise of fewer than 100,000 people boasts the world's newest flag of convenience and a corrupt royal family - just what Osama bin Laden's men were looking for.
Among the tens of thousands of foreign-registered ships, who would look askance at the tiny island, ruled for 145 years by the Tupou clan, split by family feuds over the spoils of kingship and often the object of derision among their own people and their Pacific neighbours?
But in the two years since the Tonga red-and-white ensign first flew, three foreign-owned Tonga "ships of shame" have been caught ferrying terrorists, weapons and explosives for al-Qaeda. Two others raised intense suspicions and were searched.
As a result, the US Navy is wary of - and is prepared to stop and search if considered necessary - any of the 62 ships which the CIA has identified flying Tongan flags, including four owned by Australian interests.
Shipping companies use flags of convenience to avoid heavy taxes and stringent inspections which would condemn their vessels to the wrecker yards. While the vessels' real owners can hide behind a wall of secrecy created by dubious ownership structures, the crews are cheap foreign labour, with no rights. As a result, the ships and the crews are vulnerable, easy targets for clever terrorists.
Tongan-registered ships had been plying the sea without hindrance for a year when they first came under suspicion, causing a new crisis for the royal family, already under attack over allegations that it held $350 million in secret bank accounts.
The Israeli Navy on January 3 last year seized the Tongan-flagged KarineA which was carrying 50 tonnes of weapons and munitions which Israel claimed was destined for the Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
US officials are investigating a shipping company named Nova, incorporated in Delaware in the US and Romania, after two of its Tongan-flagged vessels were used to smuggle suspected al-Qaeda operatives.
Eight Pakistanis, who US officials claimed had been sent by al-Qaeda, jumped ship from the Nova-owned Twillinger when it berthed in Trieste, Italy, last February. They falsely claimed to be crewmen, carried large sums of money and false identification.
In August, the captain of the Nova-owned Sara sent an SOS for help to Italian maritime authorities, claiming the ship's owners had forced him to take on board in Casablanca, Morocco, 15 Pakistanis, who were menacing his crew with guns. All 15 were charged with conspiracy to engage in terrorist acts after investigators found evidence linking them to al-Qaeda. They confiscated tens of thousands of US dollars, false passports and documents, and maps of Italian cities.
Two months later, another Nova vessel, the Cristi, was boarded in Greek waters and searched, but no incriminating evidence was found.
US warships in the Mediterranean stopped and searched the Tongan-registered Rasha J near Sicily for 17 hours, but allowed it to continue.
Since the capture in November of al-Qaeda's alleged maritime strategist, Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, US intelligence officials say they have identified 15 cargo vessels operated by the terrorists under various flags of convenience. They believe there are more to be identified.
Other North and South Pacific islands have flags of convenience, although there is no evidence that they have also been targeted by al-Qaeda. They are the Marshall Islands, Vanuatu, Tuvalu and Fiji.
But they are minnows compared with the two most notorious registers of "ships of shame" - Panama with 5217 ships and the African nation of Liberia with 1672.
Tonga's shipping register operates out of the Athens port of Piraeus. The deputy registrar of ships is Pelopidas Papadopoulos, although the nominal registrar is Tonga's secretary for marine and ports, Tu'itupou Fotu.
After searches of Tongan-flagged vessels last year, the Tongan Government announced in June it would close the register, citing concerns it was tarnishing Tonga's reputation. The 185 ships then registered were given 12 months' notice of termination.
Two months after the incident involving the Sara, the Government said any registered vessel found carrying illicit cargo or involved in illicit activities would be immediately de-registered to reflect its commitment to international efforts against terrorism. It has not spoken publicly about the registry since.
The official spokesman last week declined to respond to questions covering the status of the registry and whether moves to close it remained on track, despite initially pledging replies "within the hour".
Tonga is not the sort of place that readily answers outsiders. In Pacific terms, the archipelago has a unique history. Called The Friendly Islands by James Cook on his second voyage to the Pacific between 1772 and 1775, the name stuck among the European sailors who followed his wake searching for whales and trade. The islands were united into a Polynesian kingdom in 1845 and became a constitutional monarchy in 1875.
In 1900 Tonga became a British protectorate, and it acquired its independence in 1970 and joined the Commonwealth of Nations. It remains the only monarchy in the Pacific.
Followers of Tongan politics would not have been surprised by the monarchy-dominated country's latest revenue-raising measure. While commoners are poor, the wealthy royal family owns Tonga's only private power company, its second phone company and its duty-free concession. And it's not the first time it has exploited its sovereign status to make money.
In the late 1980s the King embarked on a scheme to sell Tongan passports, which eventually disintegrated after few countries recognised the special Tonga protected persons passport. They sold to mainly Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese for up to $46,000 each, although the disgraced Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos was reputed to be among those who bought one.
Tonga has sold space above the country for satellite use and an American reinsurance scam involving the King's official court jester lost more than $US26 million ($44.6 million) of government money.
Despite spending several years on a much-publicised weight-loss program aimed at encouraging other overweight Tongans to shed kilos and give up smoking, King Taufa'ahau Tupou IV recently announced a deal to house an American cigarette company factory. But in a post-September 11 world, Tonga, like several Pacific island states knows lax practices - tax havens, shell banks or shipping registers - are under scrutiny as never before.
Next month the Pacific Island Forum secretariat in Fiji will host an expert working group to draft model legislation combating terrorism, money laundering and other transnational organised crime in the region. Australia has put up $150,000 and the United States and New Zealand will also fund the initiative.
The hope is that forum members will adopt the legislation so they can act collectively and implement internationally agreed anti-terrorism measures.
But the challenges are huge. The secretariat law enforcement officer, Shaun Evans, said the ultimate goals of terrorist groups and organised crime syndicates were different, but they often worked hand in hand.
"Organised crime groups use their resources to make money by dealing with terrorists.
"Since September 11 and moves to try to freeze terrorists' assets, we need to change the way we look at the avenues for terrorism and transnational crime and look far more seriously at the ways in which these groups can be shut down.
"We need to ensure the ways in which they operate can be combated by robust and consistent legislation around the region - be it their finance activities, funnelling money through 'charities', people smuggling, whatever - and shipping registers is one of the areas that will be looked at."