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Last summer, the F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, capped a whirlwind South Pacific trip with a snorkel trip in Hawaii.<\/p>\n
There, Navy SEALs used two boats to transport and escort Mr. Patel and nine other people on what a Defense Department email called a \u201cV.I.P. Snorkel\u201d next to one of the military\u2019s most sacred sites, the underwater tomb of the U.S.S. Arizona that holds the remains of more than 900 Navy sailors and Marines who died at Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n
Mr. Patel swam in the vicinity of the tomb for 30 minutes, according to the Navy.<\/p>\n
Out of respect for the dead entombed in the wreck of the Arizona, rules bar visitors even from wearing swimwear at the memorial. With some exceptions over the years for dignitaries, the only people allowed in the water around the tomb are military and National Park Service divers interring the remains of the last Arizona survivors in the wreck, or conducting annual maintenance surveys, according to a former Navy officer and a former National Park Service official familiar with restrictions at the site.<\/p>\n
Officials from the Navy and the Defense Department said V.I.P. \u201ctours\u201d near the Arizona were common, but they declined to say how often they take people snorkeling. A Navy spokeswoman declined to identify the nine people who joined Mr. Patel on the trip. The F.B.I. said that Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr., the head of the United States Indo-Pacific Command, invited Mr. Patel to Pearl Harbor.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
The New York Times obtained details of the Pearl Harbor trip through a Freedom of Information Act request and information from a former F.B.I. official. Mr. Patel\u2019s participation in the snorkeling trip was reported earlier<\/a> by The Associated Press.<\/p>\n The idea of a high-ranking government official receiving an escort from the SEALs for a recreational swim near the tomb is \u201chorrifying,\u201d said William M. McBride, a Navy veteran and professor emeritus of history at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a war grave with the same legal status as Arlington National Cemetery,\u201d Mr. McBride said in an interview. \u201cSnorkeling around Arizona is as disrespectful as playing kickball on top of the graves at Arlington.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pearl Harbor trip was at the end of an itinerary in which Mr. Patel visited F.B.I. facilities in Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand. Disclosure of the snorkeling tour, and new details about other trips he has taken, comes as Mr. Patel is already under scrutiny for blending leisure travel with official business or instructing F.B.I. employees to make accommodations for him and his girlfriend, Alexis Wilkins.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n This article is based on interviews with more than a dozen current and former F.B.I. and law enforcement agents as well as people familiar with Mr. Patel\u2019s travel plans, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution from Mr. Patel or because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The article is also based on flight records and other documents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n