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 Clinton Steps Back From Sniper Fire Claim
by The Associated Press
Posted: March 25, 2008 - 8:00 am ET
(Washington) Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign
said she "misspoke" last week when saying she had landed under sniper
fire during a trip to Bosnia as first lady in March 1996.
The Obama campaign suggested it was a deliberate
exaggeration by Clinton, who often cites the goodwill trip with her daughter and
several celebrities as an example of her foreign policy experience.
During a speech last Monday on Iraq, she said of
the Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was supposed
to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran
with our heads down to get into the vehicles to get to our base."
According to an Associated Press story at the
time, Clinton was placed under no extraordinary risks on that trip. And one of
her companions, comedian Sinbad, told The Washington Post he has no recollection
either of the threat or reality of gunfire.
When asked Monday about the New York senator's
remarks about the trip, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson pointed to Clinton's
written account of it in her book, "Living History," in which she
described a shortened welcoming ceremony at Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina.
"Due to reports of snipers in the hills
around the airstrip, we were forced to cut short an event on the tarmac with
local children, though we did have time to meet them and their teachers and to
learn how hard they had worked during the war to continue classes in any safe
spot they could find," Clinton wrote.
"That is what she wrote in her book,"
Wolfson said. "That is what she has said many, many times and on one
occasion she misspoke."
A spokesman for rival Barack Obama's campaign
questioned whether Clinton misspoke, saying her comments came in what appeared
to be prepared remarks for the Iraq speech. His campaign's statement included a
link to the speech on Clinton's campaign Web site with her account of running to
the cars. Clinton's campaign said what is on the Web site is not the prepared
text, but a transcript of her remarks, including comments before the speech in
which she talked about the trip to Bosnia.
Obama spokesman Tommy Vietor said in a written
statement that Clinton's Bosnia story "joins a growing list of instances in
which Senator Clinton has exaggerated her role in foreign and domestic
policymaking."
The Obama campaign statement also links to a CBS
News video of the Bosnia trip posted on YouTube, which shows Clinton and her
daughter, Chelsea, walking across the tarmac from a large cargo plane, smiling
and waving, and stopping to shake hands with Bosnia's acting president and greet
an 8-year-old girl.
"This is something that the Obama campaign
wants to push 'cause they have nothing positive to say about their
candidate," Wolfson said during Monday's conference call.
Clinton's written account contradicts her
comments last Monday about the welcoming ceremony.
Just after the speech, Clinton reaffirmed the
account of running from the plane to the cars when she was asked about it during
a news conference. She said was moved into the cockpit of the C-17 cargo plane
as they were flying into Tuzla Air Base.
"Everyone else was told to sit on their
bulletproof vests," Clinton said. "And we came in, in an evasive
maneuver. ... There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run
to our cars. Now, that is what happened."
Former Army Secretary Togo West, who accompanied
Clinton to Bosnia, said he was not surprised "that there could be
confusion" when someone who has taken a number of trips tries to recall
details of a particular trip 12 years earlier.
"The important thing is that she was there.
Our soldiers saw she was there and heard her and knew that our country cared
about them and what they were doing," West told the AP during a telephone
interview.
©365Gay.com 2008
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