Last night we brought you the news of Patrick Syring, the 20-year career Foreign Service officer, who has been indicted for harassing the staff of the Arab Institute with a string of phone messages and emails saying among other things that the “only good Arab is a dead Arab”, that various members of the staff were “wicked evil Hezbollah-supporting Arabs [who] 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.”
Turns out the AP story left a fair amount of Syring’s tirades out of their story.
Here’s the indictment with all the details.
Late Update: For the record, the folks at the Arab American Institute, the ones on the receiving end of Syring’s abuse, released this statement …
Yesterday afternoon we were notified that the grand jury has returned two indictments charging a long-time State Department employee with Threatening Communication in Interstate Commerce and violating the civil rights of the employees of the Arab American Institute.
James Zogby, the president of AAI, said, âWe are pleased with word that the grand jury has returned two indictments. This has been a matter of concern to me and my entire office. The Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice has been responsive, and we feel protected. The threats were both intimidating and frightening â and the fact that the defendant was a 20-year career officer at the Department of State made it of even greater concern.â
