Pat Dollard | Young Americans

Hillary at it again, trying to make herself look like she’s something she’s not, trying to make us think she did things she never did, trying to make us believe she is greater than she actually is…from Newsbusters:

In a speech on Iraq policy delivered Monday at George Washington University, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton recalled facing “sniper fire” on her 1996 trip to Bosnia to visit U.S. troops on a peacekeeping mission. But reporters traveling with the then-First Lady made no reference to any “sniper fire” at the time, and pictures of Clinton arriving at the main air base in Tuzla don’t show anyone ducking or covering.

Here’s how Clinton began her speech:

Good morning. I want to thank Secretary West for his years of service, not only as Secretary of the Army, but also to the Veteran’s Administration, to our men and women in uniform, to our country. 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. But it was a moment of great pride for me to visit our troops, not only in our main base as Tuzla, but also at two outposts where they were serving in so many capacities to deactivate and remove landmines, to hunt and seek out those who had not complied with the Dayton Accords and put down their arms, and to build relationships with the people that might lead to a peace for them and their children.

A Nexis search found hundreds of stories on the election-year trip, but no mention of any hostile fire or snipers. A CBS report did mention that the First Lady was required to wear a flak jacket for her safety; a report by Sharyl Atkisson for the March 25 CBS This Morning showed Mrs. Clinton arriving at the main air base at Tuzla not running with her head down, but smiling and walking alongside daughter Chelsea.

As for a lack of a ceremony at the air base, Atkisson reported Clinton was greeted by the acting President of Bosnia and “an eight-year-old Bosnian girl who says she can’t remember a time before the war and by a class of seventh-graders who have been pen pals with the children of US troops.”

The little girl was shown telling Clinton: “Thank you, because you’ve given us a lot of help, and I want all the best in Bosnia.” Nobody was covering their heads or hiding.

The AP’s Ron Fournier noted that Mrs. Clinton was “protected by sharpshooters” when she traveled beyond the Tuzla Air Base, but made no mention that they were needed in his report on Clinton’s next stop:

Protected by sharpshooters, First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived by Black Hawk helicopter in a military zone Monday to deliver a personal “thank you” to U.S. soldiers. “They’re making a difference,” she said of the 18,500 Americans working as peacekeepers in Bosnia.

None of the stories mentioned the drama of landing under fire that Clinton referred to on Monday. So either Hillary faced “sniper fire” — and no one at the time thought shots fired at the First Lady were newsworthy — or she is exaggerating the dangers of her Bosnia trip to bolster the image of herself as a potential commander-in-chief. Either way, reporters who were on the trip should make the reality of the situation clear.

Sinbad, who joined Mrs. Clinton on the trip, doesn’t remember anything especially dangerous. “I think the only ‘red-phone’ moment was: ‘Do we eat here or at the next place,’” he told the Washington Post.

Full Newsbusters article by Rich Noyes here.