Salim Huss is a decent man but...

"Dr Salim el-Hoss is 80 now but remains a staunch defender of human rights and democracy, an opponent of the death penalty and an outspoken supporter of Palestinians. He finds it difficult to climb the steps to airliners, he confessed to me on our way back from Qatar this week, but reads as voraciously as ever. When I recommended to him a long article on American torture, he read it right through to the end and then put the paper down with a slap on his knee. "Terrible, terrible," he muttered." In 2000, weeks before he resoundingly lost to Rafiq Hariri, I asked him whether he was going to respond to Rafiq Hariri's dirty sectarian campaigning, and he told me: I will not stoop to his level. Salim Huss is a decent man but his weak personality and lack of charisma has been a great gift for his opponents in the Hariri family.