They should have called it the U.S.S. Abscam

Published March 1, 2011 5:00am ET



Disregarding public outrage, the U.S. Navy will name a warship after the late Rep. Jack Murtha, D-Pa.,who had accused Marines of murdering Iraqi civilians in 2006. But the problem with naming the ship doesn’t just stop at what Murtha called a branch of the military that would occupy the ship, but also with his willingness to entertain bribery.

A few years ago, In the 1980s, Murtha became a target for the ABSCAM investigation which caught him on video offering assistance to FBI agents posing as intermediaries for Saudis attempting to bribe their way through the immigration process. When he was caught, he agreed to testify against other congressmen caught on video taking cash bribes.

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