Former Diplomat Gets Prison for Hate Crime

(Washington, D.C.) A 50-year-old career foreign service officer retired from the U.S. State Department, W. Patrick Syring, pleaded guilty to violating the civil rights of Arabs and was sentenced to one year in prison.

Syring admittedly made racist threats against employees of the Arab American Institute including President James Zogby.

The charges stem from messages he left at AAI in the midst of the 2006 war between Israel and Hezbollah.

"The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring said in a profanity-laden July 2006 voice-mail message delivered to AAI, which promotes Arab American participation in elections and policy issues.

After federal prosecutors in the District accused him of intimidating the workers based on their national origin, Syring sent an incendiary message to a television station where Zogby had been interviewed. In the March 2008 e-mail, Syring repeated some of the language from his phone call and accused Zogby of "promoting the interest of Hezbollah, Hamas and Arab terror."

Syring was also ordered to complete 100 hours community service and was fined $10,000.

According to U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor, "There is no room in our society for the intolerance of other races or national origins, particularly by those who hold positions in the government." That's interesting since Syring's words don't seem to be substantively different from Islamists who regularly call for the deaths of Jews, Christians and other infidels in public pronouncements.

Funny, but I don't recall the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division prosecuting the Islamists for intolerance of other races or national origins. Agreed, they don't hold positions in the government but a hate crime is a hate crime. Right?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending Syring. My complaint is against hate crime prosecutions which regularly appear to be more political than criminal in nature.