RUSH: There was a fascinating story yesterday in the Los Angeles Times: ‘Capture of British Sailors All Too Familiar.’ By the way, Scott Ott of ScrappleFace had a great idea to solve this crisis. Dick Cheney suggested that we trade Jimmy Carter to the Iranians for the British hostages, that all it would take is an executive order, a presidential executive order. Karl Rove could handle that so that Bush need not be bothered with the details, and there would be a little poetic justice here in trading Jimmy Carter to the Iranians for the for the 15 British hostages. Anyway, this LA Times piece: ‘Capture of British Sailors All Too Familiar — Iran also seized three servicemen in 2004, but this time raises added alarm.’ Let me read to you one of the quotes here from the story.
‘One of the 2004 detainees, Marine Cpl. Christopher Monan…said the captives were ‘treated fairly well,’ and were subjected to no physical abuse. But they were subject to mental abuse, he said. ‘There were the mock executions. Basically, they were taking us from one of the rooms to the toilet, and when you’d turn you’d hear the cock of their weapon, and them laughing, and then they’d carry you on,’ Monan said. A televised clip showed the men walking blindfolded through the desert, he said, and they were later forced into a ditch. There, they heard the cocking of weapons from the edge, as if the pit was intended as their grave.’ Now, what is this referred to here in the Los Angeles Times? Why, this is referred to as ‘mental abuse,’ is it not? Well, why isn’t what we just heard described here called torture? The Iranians paraded the Brits that they captured in 2004 on television blindfolded — which, by the way, that is a violation of the left’s precious Geneva Conventions. You don’t blindfold prisoners. We never hear any criticism of the Iranians or Islamofascists and the way they conduct their prisoner of war tactics.
Now we have the distinction between mental and physical abuse. Mental abuse, that’s fine! The word ‘torture,’ which actually applies here, is never used in this LA Times piece. But it gets even better, ladies and gentlemen, because today on The View, Rosie implied that the captured Brit soldiers, the 15 of them, ‘are a contrived Gulf of Tonkin for war with Iran. Today on The View, Rosie O’Donnell discussed the Iranian seizure, and she gave out false information on national TV and implied that this may be a hoax so as to provide the president with an excuse to go to war.’ This is her quote: ‘But interesting with the British sailors, there were 15 British sailors and Marines who apparently went into Iranian waters and they were seized by the Iranians. And I have one thing to say: Gulf of Tonkin, Google it. Okay.’ Now, Rosie may have missed the news here, but there’s a fisherman, an Iraqi fisherman who was witness to this and said that the Iranians absconded the British soldiers and the Marines in Iraqi waters, that they had not crossed into the waters of Iran. They were not, therefore, in Iranian territory.
This guy’s identity is being protected in order to protect him, but you have to ask: this woman, Rosie O’Donnell, is no different than the most embarrassing wacko caller we can imagine here, and if somebody who said things like the things Rosie O’Donnell says on The View called this program, she wouldn’t last. We don’t tolerate kookery here, even on Open Line Friday where the rules are somewhat relaxed. This woman is arguably now the leader of the program. A lot of people say, ‘I can’t believe Barbara Walters is putting up with this. I can’t believe Barbara Walters lets her stay.’ I think Barbara Walters has lost control of the show. It’s supposedly her show and so forth, but, look, folks, it’s this simple. When you have a major network like ABC television that has this kind of show on with this host, and this is by no means the first utterance of sheer insanity. If you don’t do anything about it, you must want it to air. You must want this kind of stuff of your network. That’s the way to look at this. To sit here and say, ‘I can’t believe they’re not doing anything about it.’ Of course they’re not doing anything about it! This is why she’s there. Learn it. Love it. Live it. Whatever. Get used to it.
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RUSH: I was just thinking about Rosie O’Donnell. You lesbians out there, I have a question for you: How do you feel? I know a lot of you people on the left out there, the lesbians, you group yourselves into groups obviously. How do you lesbians feel that Rosie O’Donnell is the most prominent lesbian spokesman out there? I would think somebody would make a move to do something, but I’m telling you, as far as ABC’s concerned, that’s how they want the program to air.