From the final para., pg 1, of the Standard article under discussion, Saddam's Ambassador to al Qaeda

I then picked up a picture of a man known as Abu Wael that I had acquired from Kurdish intelligence. In the course of my research, several sources had claimed that Abu Wael was on Saddam's payroll and was also an al Qaeda operative, but few had any facts to back up their claim. For example, one Arabic daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, stated flatly before the Iraq war, "all information indicates [that Abu Wael] was the link between al Qaeda and the Iraqi regime" but neglected to provide any such information. Agence France-Presse after the war cited a Kurdish security chief's description of Abu Wael as a "key link to Saddam's former Baath regime" and an "intelligence agent for the ousted president originally from Baghdad." Again, nothing was provided to substantiate this claim.

Note that the "Arabic daily" cited in this excerpt, al-Sharq al-Awsat, is published in London, and apparently was a (the?) primary source for the '93 Bush assassination attempt story

"London, 25 April [MENA]--Citing high-level sources in Kuwait, the newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat reports today that Iraqi elements infiltrated Kuwait's northern border on 13 April prior to former U.S. President George Bush's visit to Kuwait to carry out several acts of sabotage, including the assassination of Bush and his entourage.

More recently, in November 2003, the paper was granted an interview in London with Pres. Bush.

All in all, al-Sharq al-Awsat is an interesting little paper with an intriguing perspective.

S