Related Post: Hillary Clinton Speech on War in Iraq In Hillary Clinton's March 18, 2008 speech on the War in Iraq delivered at George Washington University and at other campaign stops and interviews Hillary Clinton has cited her 1996 trip to Bosnia among her foreign policy credentials.
Her description of the trip from her March 18 speech is as follows:
"I certainly do remember that trip to Bosnia, and as Togo said, there was a saying around the White House that if a place was too small, too poor, or too dangerous, the president couldn't go, so send the First Lady. That’s where we went.
"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."
Hillary Clinton was accompanied on the 1996 Bosnia trip by her then 16 year old daughter Chelsea, comedian Sinbad and singer Sheryl Crow.
Sinbad and other news agencies are disputing Clinton's description of the trip, specifically the statement above. With regard to Clinton's statement that she went on the trip because Bosnia was "too small, too poor, or too dangerous" for the President, comedian Sinbad responded: “What kind of president would say ‘Hey man, I can’t go ’cause I might get shot so I’m going to send my wife. Oh, and take a guitar player and a comedian with you.”
FactCheck.Org looked into the statement and four other foreign policy related statements Clinton made during a March 6, 2008 interview on CNN and pointed out that "Clinton has repeatedly referenced her "dangerous" trip to Bosnia. She fails to mention, however, that the Bosnian war had officially ended three months before her visit – or that she made the trip with her 16-year-old daughter and two entertainers."
The Associated Press (AP) reports that "according to accounts at the time, she was placed under no extraordinary risks on that trip. And one of her companions on it said he has no recollection either of the threat or reality of gunfire."
During later questioning "Clinton said she was moved into the cockpit of the C-17 cargo plane as they were flying into Tuzla Air Base, Bosnia-Herzegovina. "Everyone else was told to sit on their bulletproof vests," she 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.""
The AP then references Hillary's description of the trip in her book "Living History". The following is the text from the book as reported in the AP article:
""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," she wrote. "She also described in the book how the plane was kept high, "above the reach of surface-to-air missiles and sniper fire." She wrote, "Above the airstrip, the captain dipped a wing and made a near-perpendicular landing to evade possible ground fire.""
In 1996, the AP reported that: "Security was tight — fighter jets accompanied her C-17 cargo plane to Tuzla — but officials said the first lady took no extraordinary risks on the trip."
"The first lady spent quite a bit of time in the cockpit, with pilot Cheryl Beineke, one of just four female C-17 pilots in the U.S. Air Force."
The Wall Street Journal reported that "last week, the comedian Sinbad, who accompanied Clinton on the trip along with singer Sheryl Crow and then-first daughter Chelsea, said he remembers the landing differently. “I think the only ‘red-phone’ moment was: ‘Do we eat here or at the next place?’”
Sources:
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/hillarys_adventures_abroad.html
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hOOyd7DUPKM4G2Pd019mg-KEr6NQD8VFEKRG0
http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2008/03/17/he-said-she-said-hillary-and-sinbad/
Related Post: Hillary Clinton Speech on War in Iraq
