Six years on, Hariri legacy falters in Lebanon

"... BEIRUT, Feb 12, 2011 (AFP) - Six years after Rafiq Hariri's assassination galvanized Lebanon,... the camp of outgoing prime minister Saad Hariri, son of the slain five-time premier, has since "suffered a number of setbacks," said Asaad AbuKhalil, professor at California State University and author of a political blog. "But it would be too soon to declare its death because the factors that gave rise to the movement remain," AbuKhalil told AFP.
.... today the tables have turned for Hariri and his Western-backed allies.
"Six years on, things are looking pretty grim for the original coalition formed after Hariri's assassination," said political commentator Nicholas Noe, editor of a book on Hezbollah."The deepest cut over the years has been the issue of the tribunal," Noe added. "Those forces opposed to the tribunal have been able with a fair degree of success to undermine its credibility."...
"The battle has long been about the Lebanese public's perception of the tribunal's credibility and legitimacy," said Elias Muhanna, author of another political blog and a PhD candidate at Harvard University."And I think that (the Hezbollah camp) has been more adept at shaping that perception."...
A local pro-Hezbollah television channel has also aired a series of leaked recordings of the outgoing premier's interviews with UN investigators dating back to 2007 in which he called Syria's President Bashar al-Assad an "idiot."Although Hariri had initially pointed the finger at Assad for his father's murder, he later cosied up to his northern neighbour, visiting Damascus on several occasions since his 2009 appointment as prime minister.
"I would not underestimate the impact of the . . . leaks in that they showed the extent to which the actual legal proceeding of the position of the Hariri court had been tainted by utter unprofessionalism," said AbuKhalil.
"The way Hariri spoke, so vulgarly, made him . . . unseemly to some," he added. "Here was Hariri rallying his community against Syria, only to have his followers witness how he crawled right back to Syria."..."