http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080711/ts_nm/rights_diplomat_racist_dc_1
Former U.S. diplomat gets year for anti-Arab comments
Fri Jul 11, 5:47 PM ET
WA****NGTON (Reuters) - A retired U.S. diplomat was sentenced on Friday to
one year in prison and fined $10,000 for sending racist, threatening
messages to an Arab-American group, the Justice Department said.
The diplomat, Patrick Syring of Arlington, Virginia, sent abusive and
intimidating e-mails and voice mails to employees of the Arab American
Institute, a Wa****ngton group.
He was sentenced in federal court in the U.S. capital after pleading
guilty
to federal civil rights charges, the Justice Department said in a
statement.
Among his comments in a series of e-mails, Syring wrote that "the only
good
Arab is a dead Arab."
Of particular target was the institute's president, James Zogby, "and his
wicked Hezbollah brothers."
"They will burn in hellfire on this earth and in the hereafter," said
Syring, 50, in an e-mail that was included in the indictment last year.
Syring was a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East and had worked more recently
in the Human Resources division at the State Department.
"Threats of violent hate crimes have an impact far greater than the impact
on the individual victim," said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant
Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division.
"These are crimes against the fundamental ideals on which America was
founded," she added.
Syring, who retired from the State Department last year, was ordered to
serve 100 hours of community service and have three years of post-release
supervision, the Justice Department said.
"There is no room in our society for the intolerance of other races or
national origins, particularly by those who hold positions within the
government," said Jeffrey Taylor, U.S. Attorney for the District of
Columbia.
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