JQuery :: Changing HRef Value For Redirection

I have external links on my website which are added by users of the system. I want to do the following:
1) Change the HREF value via jquery of any external hyperlink to be a page on my site that opens in a new window
2) This page will be a 'Please wait, we are redirecting you to your chosen website
' kind of page
3) This page then redirects the user to the URL they clicked after a couple of seconds

I thought of doing something like the following:
$('a[href^="http://"]').attr({target: "_blank", title: "Opens in a new window", href: "/redirect/"+$(this).href});
So the idea being that I open all external URLs in a new window but I load a page called /redirect (which is my own page) but I pass to it the URL I want to redirect too.

This is not working as each time I click my link my URL is:
/redirect/undefined