Clinton accused of exaggerating NI visit
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton
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By Darren Estwick. |  |
Monday, 19, Oct 2009 11:41
By Richard James.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton has once again been accused of exaggerating stories about trips abroad while her husband Bill was president.
In a speech in Belfast last week, during a whirlwind tour of Northern Ireland, she said the city's Europa Hotel had been devastated by an explosion when she stayed there with her husband in 1995.
However, the last terror strike on the building was in fact in 1993, two years before the former first lady stayed at the hotel.
And renovations to the landmark building are said to have been completed 22 months before the presidential visit.
Speaking at Stormont last week, Mrs Clinton said: "When Bill and I first came to Belfast, we stayed at the Europa Hotel... even though then there were sections boarded up because of damage from bombs."
The comments have since been rejected by hotel sources who claim there is "no way" the building would have been boarded up when she stayed there.
A spokesman for the secretary of state said she was trying to express a sincere "perception" about the troubles in Northern Ireland.
Her comments follow controversy last year when she "mis-spoke" about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia in 1996.
During the US presidential campaign she was forced to admit she had not landed in the country "under sniper fire".