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Hillary's Foreign Policy Experience? Irish Say "Not in Ireland"
Right-Wing News ^ | March 09, 2008 | Staff

Posted on 03/09/2008 5:54:30 PM PDT by jdm

Finally some examination and some information about this vast experience Hillary Clinton claims - like helping to bring peace to Northern Ireland:

Hillary Clinton had no direct role in bringing peace to Northern Ireland and is a "wee bit silly" for exaggerating the part she played, according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

But to hear Hillary Clinton, she was right in the middle of it:

"I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland," she told CNN on Wednesday.

However, the real players disagree:

But negotiators from the parties that helped broker the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 told The Daily Telegraph that her role was peripheral and that she played no part in the gruelling political talks over the years.

Said Lord Trimble:

"I don’t know there was much she did apart from accompanying Bill [Clinton] going around," he said. Her recent statements about being deeply involved were merely "the sort of thing people put in their canvassing leaflets" during elections. "She visited when things were happening, saw what was going on, she can certainly say it was part of her experience. I don’t want to rain on the thing for her but being a cheerleader for something is slightly different from being a principal player."

Central to Clinton's claim is a 50 minute pre-arranged meeting which she describes thusly:

"I remember a meeting that I pulled together in Belfast, in the town hall there, bringing together for the first time Catholics and Protestants from both traditions, having them sitting a room where they had never been before with each other because they don’t go to school together, they don’t live together and it was only in large measure because I really asked them to come that they were there.

"And I wasn’t sure it was going to be very successful and finally a Catholic woman on one side of the table said, ’You know, every time my husband leaves for work in the morning I worry he won’t come home at night.

"And then a Protestant woman on the other side said, ’Every time my son tries to go out at night I worry he won’t come home again’. And suddenly instead of seeing each other as caricatures and stereotypes they saw each other as human beings and the slow, hard work of peace-making could move forward."

The Belfast Telegraph, however, remembers it slightly differently. There is no record of a meeting in the Belfast Town Hall, but there is a mention of a meeting at the Lamp Lighter Café on the city’s Ormeau Road:

The "Belfast Telegraph" reported the next day that the café meeting was crammed with reporters, cameramen and Secret Service agents. Conversation "seemed a little bit stilted, a little prepared at times" and Mrs Clinton admired a stainless steel tea pot, which was duly given to her, for keeping the brew "so nice and hot".

Among those attending were women from groups representing single parents, relationship counsellors, youth workers and a cultural society.

And, as the Telegraph article points out, when Clinton previously wrote about this meeting in her autobiography, she attached no real significance to it. Said Conall McDevitt, an SDLP negotiator and aide to Mr Hume during the talks:

"I’ve always had a theory that these people were already well networked. Maybe they needed a bit of bringing together and she [Mrs Clinton] was an ideal focus point." Once a peace deal was in place, Mrs Clinton supported women politicians and was always available if they visited Washington "to give them a pat on the back, give them moral support", he added.

McDevitt also added:

"There would have been no contact with her either in person or on the phone. I was with Hume regularly during calls in the months leading up to the Good Friday Agreement when he was taking calls from the White House and they were invariably coming from the president."

So much for that claim then. The question now becomes, how will the Obama campaign use this information? I'm sure it is already sitting in the opo research data for the Republicans.


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; United Kingdom
KEYWORDS: experience; hillary; hillaryforeignpolicy; ireland; northernireland; policy; stophillary

1 posted on 03/09/2008 5:54:31 PM PDT by jdm
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To: jdm

Hillary? Vast experience? What a crock. The only vast experience she has is trying to figure out what bed her “husband” is sleeping in at any given time.....


2 posted on 03/09/2008 5:59:53 PM PDT by EagleUSA
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To: EagleUSA

her only experience with foreign affairs is when she catches Bill cheating with some russian girl.


3 posted on 03/09/2008 6:06:16 PM PDT by ari-freedom (McCain must pick a conservative VP if he wants conservative support)
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To: EagleUSA

This cannot be true.. Mrs William clinton wife of the impeached ex president would not lie......


4 posted on 03/09/2008 6:06:48 PM PDT by JoanneSD (illegals represented without taxation.. Americans taxed without representation)
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To: jdm

But she once soaped herself down in the shower with Irish Spring.

And it was used on some foreign territory.

So it counts.


5 posted on 03/09/2008 6:13:29 PM PDT by COUNTrecount
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To: jdm

I guess this is another my daddy marched with MLK slip-up.


6 posted on 03/09/2008 6:19:10 PM PDT by randomhero97 ("First you want to kill me, now you want to kiss me. Blow!" - Ash)
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To: jdm
I'm sure it is already sitting in the opo research data for the Republicans.

Don't count on it.

7 posted on 03/09/2008 6:22:08 PM PDT by Freee-dame
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To: jdm
Once again the arrogance and shamelessness shines through above all else. I knew when I heard her claiming credit for peace in Northern Ireland it was a lie and soon those that were involved would call her on it.

But she also knew it and is counting, as always, on the MSM giving her a pass. They have seldom been challenged by any of their lies, until a DNA test on a stained blue dress proved at least one lie the MSM could not cover.

Whoever Obama has on his side in the media has to play this lie up as much as possible. Like Morris said, Obama now has to send surrogates out to do the dirty work. Get supporters on the TV, talking about all the negatives in the PIAPS’s part.

She will continue to lie about herself and continue to attack Obama. If he doesn't fight back, he may lose.

I'm hoping the media turned on him last week , simply to prolong the race. It's time they turned on the Beast and reminded people of all the sewage in her past. Start asking her the tough questions and bury her before the convention.

8 posted on 03/09/2008 6:22:48 PM PDT by Beatthedrum
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To: jdm
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
Image hosted by Photobucket.com
LOOK... it's TouristSenator!!!
It shows up in more places than TouristGuy,
only with less class, style and substance...
she's Vaporware, just an empty crusty.
(Please spread me around like the parasite that i am...)
Image hosted by Photobucket.com

9 posted on 03/09/2008 6:27:47 PM PDT by Chode (American Hedonist ©®)
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To: Chode

yeah now any college coed can claim she deserves to be president because she took a tour across Europe during spring break!
And stayed at a Holiday Inn Express.


10 posted on 03/09/2008 7:14:03 PM PDT by ari-freedom (McCain must pick a conservative VP if he wants conservative support)
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To: jdm
...according to Lord Trimble of Lisnagarvey, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and former First Minister of the province.

Not that being a Nobel peace prize winner provides any measure of credibility.

11 posted on 03/09/2008 7:21:17 PM PDT by NewHampshireDuo (Earth - Taking care of itself since 4.6 billion BC)
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To: EagleUSA

My hubby says Monica has had more experience in the Oval Office taking care of Presidential business than Hillary ever has! :)


12 posted on 03/09/2008 7:24:35 PM PDT by seekthetruth
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To: jdm

“I helped to bring peace to Northern Ireland,”


Monica flew on the plane with them, whoda thunk it?


13 posted on 03/09/2008 8:41:45 PM PDT by Rembrandt (We would have won Viet Nam w/o Dim interference.)
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To: Rembrandt

Pick up the phone.


14 posted on 03/09/2008 8:44:55 PM PDT by BIGLOOK (Keelhaul politicians. The Ship of State needs a good scrubbing!)
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