Clinton backpedals on Bosnia issue

Wednesday 26 March 2008

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she made a mistake when she claimed she had come under sniper fire during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady.

GREENSBURG, Pa., March 25 (Reuters) - Democratic
presidential candidate Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday she made
a mistake when she claimed she had come under sniper fire
during a trip to Bosnia in 1996 while she was first lady.
 

In a speech in Washington and in several interviews last
week Clinton described how she and her daughter, Chelsea, ran
for cover under hostile fire shortly after her plane landed in
Tuzla, Bosnia.
 

Several news outlets disputed the claim and a video of the
trip, showed Clinton walking from the plane, accompanied by her
daughter. They were greeted by a young girl in a small ceremony
on the tarmac and there was no sign of tension or any danger.
 

"I did make a mistake in talking about it, you know, the
last time and recently," Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania
where she was campaigning before the state's April 22 primary.
She said she had a "different memory" about the landing.
 

"So I made a mistake. That happens. It proves I'm human,
which, you know, for some people, is a revelation."
 

"This is really about what policy experience we have and
who's ready to be commander in chief. And I'm happy to put my
experience up against Senator Obama's any day."
 

Democratic rival Barack Obama's campaign accused Clinton, a
New York senator, of mischaracterizing the Bosnia trip and
overstating her foreign policy experience, particularly during
the eight years when her husband, Bill Clinton, was president.
 

In a speech in Washington on March 17 Clinton said of the
Bosnia trip: "I remember landing under sniper fire. There was
supposed to be some kind of greeting ceremony at the airport,
but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the
vehicles to get to our base."
 

She also told CNN last week: "There was no greeting
ceremony and we were basically told to run to our cars. Now
that is what happened."
 

Turning to a subject that has dogged Obama, Clinton said
she would not have remained a member of his Chicago church
where the pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, made inflammatory
comments about racism and the September 11, 2001 attacks.
 

"We don't have a choice when it comes to our relatives. We
have a choice when it comes to our pastors and the churches we
attend," she said. "Given all we have heard and seen, he would
not have been my pastor."
 

Clinton had previously deflected questions about the topic,
saying they should be posed to Obama, who gave an emotional
speech last week rejecting Wright's remarks and urging
Americans to move past their "racial stalemate."
 

A spokesman for Obama, a senator from Illinois, said
Clinton was simply trying to change the subject from the Bosnia
story.
 

"After originally refusing to play politics with this
issue, it's disappointing to see Hillary Clinton's campaign
sink to this low in a transparent effort to distract attention
away from the story she made up about dodging sniper fire in
Bosnia," spokesman Bill Burton said in a statement.
 

"The truth is, Barack Obama has already spoken out against
his pastor's offensive comments and addressed the issue of race
in America with a deeply personal and uncommonly honest
speech."
 

Wright, who retired recently, has railed that the Sept. 11
attacks were retribution for aggressive U.S. foreign policy,
called the  government the source of the AIDS virus and
expressed anger over what he called racist America.