Rosie: Captured Brits a hoax to provoke war

Rosie: Captured Brits a hoax to provoke war
Implies U.S. concocted 'Gulf of Tonkin' event as excuse to attack Iran

In yet another provocative claim, TV host Rosie O'Donnell implied today the Iranian seizure of British sailors was a hoax to provide President Bush with an excuse to go to war with Tehran.

In a discussion about the 15 British personnel seized Friday for allegedly entering Iranian waters, the controversial co-host of ABC's "The View" correlated the event to the Gulf of Tonkin incident that propelled the U.S. into the Vietnam War. President Johnson's administration was accused of provoking one incident in 1964 in the Gulf of Tonkin and making up another as a pretext for war.

O'Donnell, according to the media watchdog Newsbusters, said: "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."

The U.S. and Britain, however, along with Iraq and France, contend the sailors were not in Iranian waters.

After O'Donnell's comment, the dialogue when like this:

JOY BEHAR: Some other time. Some other time.

O'DONNELL: Well, you know...

BARBARA WALTERS: It could be a decision-making time. It's a very difficult situation. It's at the United Nations. It's being examined now. Should there be sanctions? Militarily, we certainly don't seem to be in the position to do something militarily. But it is a decision-making time.

O'DONNELL: Yes, but it's very interesting too that, you know, these guys, they went into the water by mistake right at a time when British and American, you know, they're two, they're pretty much our biggest ally and we're considering whether or not we should go into war with Iran.

BEHAR: But the U.N. was about to sanction them, also have an embargo against Iran. And the, and the timing [unintelligible] so they distracted the whole world with this.

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Right and they may be about to expel the inspectors right now, too, which could be considered [unintelligible]

O'DONNELL: Right or it could be just the Gulf of Tonkin, which you should all Google.

As WND reported last week, O'Donnell implied the World Trade Center brought down deliberately on Sept. 11, 2001, for the purpose of eliminating records of government investigations into corporate fraud.

The previous week O'Donnell defended 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. During the March 15 broadcast of "The View," she suggested the U.S. government elicited a false confession from Mohammed by using torture, robbing him of his humanity and treating him like an animal.

A transcript of Mohammed's confession to 31 terrorist attacks had been released that day, but O'Donnell argued it came only after having a "hood on his head and being beaten to death."

"They didn't allow reporters there and he hasn't had a lawyer," the talk show host stated, insinuating the confession was coerced with no accountability.

Defending U.S. handling of Mohammed, co-panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked, "You don't think he had ties to any of (the terrorist acts)?"

"I think the man has been under custody in secret CIA torture prisons and Guantanamo Bay where torture is accepted and allowed – and he finally is the guy who admits to doing everything," O'Donnell said. "They finally found the guy, it's not that guy bin Laden, it's this guy they've had since March 2003."

In November, O'Donnell told Hasselbeck in an exchange on "The View" that Americans shouldn't fear terrorists.

"Faith or fear, that's your choice," she said.

"You can walk through life believing in the goodness of the world, or walk through life afraid of anyone who thinks different than you and trying to convert them to your way of thinking."