Clinton's Bosnia Trip Claims Scrutinized

A 12-year-old report by CBS News' Sharyl Attkisson has been making the rounds following scrutiny of Hillary Clinton's claim that she and her party landed "under sniper fire" and were told to "run to our cars" during a 1996 trip to Bosnia. Clinton also said there was "no greeting ceremony."

Attkisson's report seems to contradict Clinton's assertion. In it, Clinton is seen waving as she arrives in Bosnia. She is greeted by the country's acting president as well as an eight-year-old girl. You can watch the report by clicking on the video box at left.

On Sunday, the Washington Post wrote that there are "numerous problems with Clinton's version of events," which have been challenged by the comedian Sinbad, who accompanied her on the trip. "A review of nearly 100 news accounts of her visit shows that not a single newspaper or television station reported any security threat to the first lady," writes the Post.

Attkisson has now written her own take on the events, which has just gone up over at the Couric & Co. blog. There, Attkisson reports that while the trip was dangerous – it was "easy to imagine we may be narrowly escaping enemy bullets," she writes – "we had no known incidents of enemy fire on our aircraft."

"To be sure, it was not the 'safest' trip for a First Lady to take: there were serious risks in traveling to Bosnia, even for the President's wife under the vigilant protection of the US military," she concludes. "It took some guts for her to go. But I don't recall, and did not note, any close calls on this trip with sniper fire or any other dangers."

Below, a Clinton's speech from March 17th in which she discusses the trip.



Update: In a conference call with reporters this afternoon, Clinton spokesman Howard Wolfson answered questions about Clinton's assertions, allowing that it is possible she "misspoke." Wolfson: "The facts are clear from contemporaneous news accounts that she was entering a potentially dangerous situation. She has written about this before, she has talked about this before and there you have it. Now, is it possible that in the most recent instance in which she discussed this that she misspoke, with regards to the exit from the plane, but there's no question that I hope everyone is clear about this in the reporting, there is no question if you look at these contemporaneous accounts that she was going to a potential combat zone, that it was by the front lines and the first person since Eleanore Roosevelt to do that and she was going into a hostile military environment."