What’s in Clinton’s book: Excerpts released

Hillary Clinton wrote about Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, Benghazi, relations with Russia, the strategy in Afghanistan and the Osama bin Laden raid in her forthcoming book Hard Choices, according to CBS News, which obtained an advanced copy.

In negotiations to recover Bergdahl, Clinton wrote that the Taliban’s top concern was the fate of their fighters detained at Guantánamo Bay. In every discussion over prisoners, Clinton said the State Department demanded that Bergdahl be released, but admits releasing prisoners would have been a difficult move. 

“I acknowledged, as I had many times before, that opening the door to negotiations with the Taliban would be hard to swallow for many Americans after so many years of war,” she wrote.

{mosads}On Benghazi, Clinton shot back at Republicans focused on uncovering any more information related to the 2012 terrorist attack. 

“There will never be perfect clarity on everything that happened. It is unlikely that there will ever be anything close to full agreement on exactly what happened that night, how it happened, or why it happened. But that should not be confused with a lack of effort to discover the truth or to share it with the American people,” she wrote. 

After the 2008 election, Clinton said she agreed the Obama administration should aggressively track down bin Laden. She was secretary of State during the 2011 U.S. Navy Seal raid that killed him, and sat in the White House situation room as the operation unfolded.

“We watched on the video feed as the SEALs improvised, sweeping through the courtyard of the compound and heading inside to look for bin Laden. Contrary to some news reports and what you see in the movies, we had no means to see what was happening inside the building itself. All we could do was wait for an update from the team on the ground. I looked at the President. He was calm. Rarely have I been prouder to serve by his side as I was that day.

“After what seemed like an eternity, but was actually about fifteen minutes, word came from [Admiral William] McRaven that the team had found bin Laden and he was ‘E-KIA,’ enemy killed in action. Osama bin Laden was dead.”

Clinton’s book will hit bookstores next Tuesday, and she’s scheduled for a national book tour and a series of media interviews to promote the book about her four years at the State Department. 

She is largely considered the Democratic front-runner if she decides to run for president in 2016.