Former U.S. diplomat gets year in prison for anti-Arab remarks

[notfullofit]

By Reuters
07:17 12/07/2008

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 Washington 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.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1001295.html

[Deja Q]

1. Wow. That's diplomacy...

Of course, some people think pigs can fly too.

[panader0]

2. Send those prosecutors to FreeRepublic

[muntrv]

3. Let's also prosecute coultergeist, Daniel Pipes, and Podheretz.

[ColbertWatcher]

4. Another proud graduate of Regent University? n/t