Hillary: Arab Media Story Is Bogus

NewsMax ^ | 4/28/04 | Carl Limbacher

[wagglebee]

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton's office is denying that she blasted President Bush in an interview with an Arab reporter on Monday.

Sen. Clinton's office said Wednesday that she never spoke to the London-based newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.

The paper offered quotes and paraphrases of her comments, which were immediately picked up by news sources throughout the Muslim world, on dozens of English language Middle Eastern Web sites and even by the usually reliable wire service Agence France-Presse.

NewsMax.com's report on Tuesday recapitulated those foreign news accounts of Sen. Clinton's alleged comments.

The story on NewsMax and several other news outlets here in the U.S. prompted a firestorm of outrage from her critics, with some saying the remarks gave aid and comfort to the enemy in a time of war.

On Wednesday morning, Sen. Clinton's office contacted several U.S. news outlets and informed them that the interview had been made up out of whole cloth.

The bogus Arab media report cited the senator as saying President Bush was "insolent, arrogant and stubborn" when it came to making war policy in Iraq.

Al-Awsat translated her as saying that Bush's "grave mistakes" have "endangered the lives of both the Iraqi people and the U.S. servicemen alike."

According to AFP's version of the interview, she warned that "the United States is in trouble because it could not abandon Iraq, nor provide enough manpower to run the country, nor gather world allies willing to provide the necessary assistance for the gigantic task."

Why AFP did not contact Sen. Clinton's office for comment is not clear.

The comments attributed to Sen. Clinton, first cited by the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper and picked up by major foreign media, is at sharp variance with Sen. Clinton's public positions regarding the president and the Iraq war.

In the Senate, Clinton has voted for the Iraq war and supported President Bush's $87 billion in reconstruction aid, a measure opposed by many leading Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry.

Mrs. Clinton has generally been supportive of President Bush's war on terror, including his Iraq policy. Recently, she did offer criticism, now shared by many Republicans and Democrats in Congress, that the Bush administration had not adequately prepared for a post-Saddam Iraq.

"Of all the things is the hardest for me to understand," Sen. Clinton told CNN's Larry King, "How could [the Bush administration] have been so poorly prepared for the aftermath of the toppling of Saddam Hussein?"

[wagglebee]

Will somebody please tell me what will ever constitute treason?

[mvpel]

The bogus Arab media report ...

Looks like they forgot the word "allegedly" in there. Oh, no, wait, I'm sorry - everything Her Magesty Queen Hillary says is the gospel truth.

[jocon307]

"Will somebody please tell me what will ever constitute treason?"

Treason is pretty tough, I think the constitution requires either a confession or two witnesses. But the point here is that she is denying she ever made these remarks. Which, quite frankly (and not to give Hillary! any undue credit because I loathe her), I thought might be the case when I heard the story on the news tonight.

Hillary may not be the greatest politician in America but I was pretty sure she wasn't doing anti-Bush interviews to Arab newspapers, even ones located in England.

[Izzy Dunne]

Will somebody please tell me what will ever constitute treason?

If a Republican does it.

[Rocky]

She said it before she didn't say it.

[no more apples]

Ask Ann Coulter.

[wagglebee]

I'd like to ask her more than that.

[John H K]

As interpreted by US courts throughout our history, there have been precious few actual prosecutions for treason.

People should pay more attention to how treason has been defined through our history, rather than Ann Coulter's fantasy of what treason should be defined as.

A US politician being critical of our government or war policy is never, ever, ever, ever going to result in a treason prosection (And, as always, remember, we have NO LAWS against Sedition since the last Sedition Act was repealed in 1921.)

[baltodog]

But she didn't mean it...both times.

[cripplecreek]

And bill clintons admmission of turning down the bin laden offer was just a misquote. Us unwashed masses will believe anything they tell us. LOL

[doug from upland]

Maybe Jason Blair did the interview.

[Smartass]

Typical Clinton comment: I didn't have sex with that Arab newspaper.

[UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide]

AFP didn't check because they agreed with it so they didn't think they needed to.

[ladyinred]

Did she say she didn't say it, or did she just deny saying it to the Arabs?

Is this false like the Monica story was false, and the Foster story is false, and the Mena stories are false, and the cattle futures story false, well, you get the idea!

[Waco]

Why would she miss a chance to lie? Sick or something?

[mass55th]

Ahh... the old misunderstood translation ploy. She tried that when she was caught kissing Arafat's wife didn't she? How many times is she going to roll this excuse out of the closet?

[2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten]

I guess hitlery is betting that there are no tapes of the interview, if it really happened. This *could* get interesting. I wonder how many reporters these days do interviews without tape recorders?

[BruceS]

Let's see - do I believe Hillary or the Arab media and AFP? In this case I have to say I believe Hillary - she may be a liberal, lying, sack of .... But even she is not stupid enough to say these sorts of things for publication and expect to win re-election or run for president.

[CyberAnt]

"Clinton has voted for the Iraq war and supported President Bush's $87 billion in reconstruction aid, a measure opposed by many leading Democrats, including Sen. John Kerry"

That little sentence stood out for me .. here she is dissing her party's candidate. Maybe the story was a PLANT .. a reason for her to deny she said it and to put in her 2 cents about how she voted for the war and the $87 bil. Of course .. she's not campaigning for the nomination or anything like that ..??

[wagglebee]

No, she's not stupid, she is a sociopath who doesn't believe that anything she does is wrong and lying is fine to get the result you need.