Bill Clinton: “I'm not sure I have a great deal to add to what the Prime Minister said. I agree with what he said. If the question that…”

“I'm not sure I have a great deal to add to what the Prime Minister said. I agree with what he said. If the question that many Italian officials are asking is, shouldn't there be an agreed-upon set of changes in the procedures for the movements and training of American military personnel to make them safer for the people of Italy, I agree with that. If the question is, should our very presence there be reexamined, and the agreement under which Americans charged with offenses should be tried in American jurisdiction, my answer is just what the Prime Minister said. I believe it serves both our interests; for example, when we were establishing our presence in Bosnia, I flew into Aviano, into our base there. And I took a C-17, one of our supply planes and flew into Bosnia. I also flew up to Hungary from there, the place where we had our base, from which we moved our people in there. And it seemed to me that our presence there, in that way, furthered Italy's interest, Europe's interest, NATO's interest, and not simply American interest. That, of course, is a judgment that every country and all the decisionmakers make, in a way, on an annual basis. They decide. They continue to support these things. But I believe that the larger partnership has served the United States and Italy very well. Larry [Larry McQuillan, Reuters]. Monica Lewinsky/U.S. Aircraft Incident in the Italian Alps”