Former U.S. diplomat gets year for anti-Arab comments

WASHINGTON (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 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."
that various members of the staff were "wicked evil Hezbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond" and lauding the Israelis for "bombing Lebanon back to the Stone Age where it belongs."



http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN1134270220080711?rpc=64&pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=10179

http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/016742.php