Racist US diplomat quits State department
Posted: Fri Aug 17, 2007 10:40 am
WASHINGTON: A career US diplomat indicted this week for sending threatening messages to an Arab political organisation has retired from the foreign service.
Patrick Syring retired last month, about a year after he allegedly left racist and intimidating phone and e-mail messages with the Arab American Institute, but before his Wednesday indictment on federal charges of threatening and violating civil rights laws, State Department spokesman said yesterday.
The spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the matter, citing privacy concerns but stressed that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice would not tolerate the behaviour in which Syring was alleged to have engaged.
"Let me just underline the seriousness with which the secretary approaches the idea that the State Department should be a workplace that in no way, shape or form, tolerates discrimination or hateful language or any other action that would violate federal laws or regulations," he said.
"It is just not condoned or acceptable in this department," he said.
It was not clear if Syring's resignation was related to the incidents with which he was charged, which were alleged to have occurred last summer during Israeli military strikes on the Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Federal prosecutors charged in an indictment that Syring had left multiple expletive-laced messages with the Arab American Institute whose founder, James Zogby, had criticised the government for not doing enough to protect US citizens visiting family members in Lebanon.
"The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring is alleged to have said, accusing Zogby of being anti-Semitic, prosecutors said.
"You wicked evil Hizbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond," Syring wrote in one e-mail, according to the prosecutors.
"The US would be safer without you."
Syring, whose tenure in the foreign service was not immediately available, also praised Israeli forces for "bombing Lebanon back to the Stone Age where it belongs" and said "Arabs are dogs," according to an e-mail cited in the indictment. He identified himself in one phone message and sent e-mails from his personal account, prosecutors said.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.as ... ueID=30150
Patrick Syring retired last month, about a year after he allegedly left racist and intimidating phone and e-mail messages with the Arab American Institute, but before his Wednesday indictment on federal charges of threatening and violating civil rights laws, State Department spokesman said yesterday.
The spokesman declined to comment on the specifics of the matter, citing privacy concerns but stressed that Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice would not tolerate the behaviour in which Syring was alleged to have engaged.
"Let me just underline the seriousness with which the secretary approaches the idea that the State Department should be a workplace that in no way, shape or form, tolerates discrimination or hateful language or any other action that would violate federal laws or regulations," he said.
"It is just not condoned or acceptable in this department," he said.
It was not clear if Syring's resignation was related to the incidents with which he was charged, which were alleged to have occurred last summer during Israeli military strikes on the Hizbollah in Lebanon.
Federal prosecutors charged in an indictment that Syring had left multiple expletive-laced messages with the Arab American Institute whose founder, James Zogby, had criticised the government for not doing enough to protect US citizens visiting family members in Lebanon.
"The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab," Syring is alleged to have said, accusing Zogby of being anti-Semitic, prosecutors said.
"You wicked evil Hizbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond," Syring wrote in one e-mail, according to the prosecutors.
"The US would be safer without you."
Syring, whose tenure in the foreign service was not immediately available, also praised Israeli forces for "bombing Lebanon back to the Stone Age where it belongs" and said "Arabs are dogs," according to an e-mail cited in the indictment. He identified himself in one phone message and sent e-mails from his personal account, prosecutors said.
http://www.gulf-daily-news.com/Story.as ... ueID=30150
