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

Here is some good news on the fight against anti-Arab racism in the
United States. As Reported in the Israeli daily Haaretz. I have not seen
any articles on this subject in the North American Press but admittedly
I have not looked very hard for them. Now if we could only get Israel to
enforce this type of law.

Ed Corrigan

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.

"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.

The State Department had no immediate comment, but when Syring retired
last year, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said utterances
such as those made by the ex-diplomat were unacceptable to U.S.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice