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Bosnia claim a mistake - Clinton
26/03/2008 09:05 - (SA)
Greensburg, Pennsylvania - Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday she made a mistake in claiming that she came under hostile fire in Bosnia 12 years ago, as rival Barack Obama's campaign continued to challenge her credibility.
In a recent speech and interviews, the New York senator described a harrowing scene in Tuzla, Bosnia, in which she and her daughter, Chelsea, had to run for cover as soon as they landed for a visit in 1996. But video footage of the day showed a peaceful reception in which a young girl greeted the first lady on the tarmac.
Clinton told reporters in Pennsylvania on Tuesday that she erred in describing the scene, which she now realises after talking with aides and others.
"So I made a mistake," she said. "That happens. It proves I'm human, which you know, for some people, is a revelation."
The more important issue, she said, is whether she would be a better commander in chief than Obama or Republican presidential candidate John McCain. Clinton and Obama are competing for votes in Pennsylvania's April 22 primary.
Clinton's aides had tried to control the Bosnia flap on Monday, saying the New York senator "misspoke".
'Lighten up, guys'
But Clinton had to address the issue herself on Tuesday, after repeated airings of the 1996 video clips caused critics to ridicule her.
Reminded that she had said it was the first time she had misspoken in 12 years, Clinton told reporters: "I was joking. Lighten up, guys."
In a March 17 speech in Washington, Clinton 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."
That account was still posted on her campaign website on Tuesday.
Clinton told CNN last week, "There was no greeting ceremony, and we basically were told to run to our cars. Now, that is what happened."
Several news outlets disputed the claims.
Clinton began retracting the remarks in a series of private interviews on Monday and Tuesday before addressing about two dozen reporters here after a speech.
She told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "I was sleep-deprived, and I misspoke."
She told KDKA radio in Pittsburgh: "You know, I have written about this and described it in many different settings, and I did misspeak the other day. This has been a very long campaign."
Claims 'astonishing'
The Obama campaign fuelled the Bosnia brouhaha on Tuesday, sponsoring a conference call with Pennsylvania reporters that featured retired Major General Walter Stewart of the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. Stewart said he was assigned to the Army's European headquarters when Clinton visited Bosnia as first lady in 1996. He said her claim that she landed under enemy fire insulted US soldiers charged with her security.
Clinton's explanation that she misspoke was "really astonishing," said Stewart, who supports Obama.
"She has no sense of what a statement like that does to soldiers," Stewart said. "She is insulting the command in its entirety."
"Believe me, heads would have rolled all over" if the military put the first lady and her daughter in a position of "unacceptable risk."
At her news conference, Clinton said, "the military and the Secret Service did a terrific job" of handling the situation in Bosnia. "We did take precautions," she said, noting that she was the first president's wife to enter a war zone since Eleanor Roosevelt.
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