Recommendations of the Editorial team
Even if the following sentence sounds like a political fill-in-the-blank game with fields already filled in – the Associated Press reports that it is true:
While he’s on [Tätigkeit] Business trip found, undertook [US-Amtsträger] FBI Director Kash Patel [andere Tätigkeit] a “VIP snorkeling tour” around [feierliche US-Gedenkstätte] the battleship USS Arizona at Pearl Harborthe [und jetzt wird es noch viel schlimmer] serves as the burial site for more than 900 sailors and Marines who died in a World War II attack – so horrific that President Franklin Roosevelt called it “a day that will live in infamy.”
Patel reportedly visited the underwater wreckage, which is considered a cemetery and closed to tourists and relatives of the Arizona victims, last August, according to emails obtained by the AP through a Freedom of Information Act request. At the time, the FBI insisted its director was not on vacation but was visiting the field office in Hawaii and meeting with local law enforcement. However, two days later, when his official appointments were completed, Patel returned to Hawaii – a fact the FBI concealed at the time – and apparently went swimming. Or, as officials put it: He completed a “VIP snorkeling session.”
FBI defends the visit
An FBI spokesman tells Rolling Stone that Patel’s visit to Pearl Harbor was part of “our Indo-Pacific activities” and was hosted by the IndoPacom commander. “This was part of the director’s public national security operations last August with partners in New Zealand, Australia, our field office in Honolulu and the War Department,” the spokesman said.
The Navy and the National Parks Service maintain the site, which is accessible only by boat and is typically visited exclusively by Parks Service employees and marine archaeologists to assess its condition. While military and government officials with direct ties to the site have also visited, according to the AP, visits by people with no specific connection to Arizona – such as the FBI director – are not common because they could be dangerous.
Navy and National Parks Service officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ROLLING STONE. Navy spokesperson Capt. Jodie Cornell confirmed to the AP that the visit took place, but could not provide details about how it came about. According to AP, government emails show that military officials organized the visit. The National Parks Service told the news agency it was not involved. A Navy spokesman told the AP that visits like Patel’s are “no exception.”
Criticism and backlash
Not everyone who heard about the visit was pleased. Hack Albertson, a Marine veteran who annually dives around the Arizona to check her condition, believes Patel’s trip was inappropriate. “It’s like having a bachelorette party in a church,” he told the AP. “It is sacred ground. It must be treated with due dignity.” Ben Williamson, Patel’s deputy director of public relations, dismissed Albertson’s comments on social media, saying, “This is a historic tour honoring the heroes who fell on the USS Arizona – not a party.”
Patel has made headlines several times in recent months for allegedly using government resources for private entertainment – for example, when a video emerged showing him celebrating with the US ice hockey team in their dressing room at the Milan Olympics, or when it was revealed that he was said to have used taxpayer-funded planes to visit his girlfriend.
