WASHINGTON (AFP) — A retired US diplomat who served in the Middle East has pleaded not guilty to two charges of making threats against Lebanese and Arabs, sources close to the case said Thursday.
Patrick Syring was indicted on August 15 for willful intimidation and making threats by allegedly delivering derogatory voicemail messages and emails to the Arab American Institute (AAI) in Washington last year.
Syring, who according to US media reports had served 20 years in the foreign service including a 1994 stint in Lebanon, entered his plea on Thursday after a judge read him the two-count indictment, the AAI said.
In a series of voicemails and emails made during the war in Lebanon last year, Syring uses profane language about Arabs while praising the Israeli Defense Forces, the charge sheet said.
"This is Patrick Syring," he said in a voicemail to the institute on July 17, 2006 at around 11:17 p.m, according to the indictment.
"The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab. Long live the IDF. Death to Lebanon and death to the Arabs."
Minutes later, an email from a Pat_1425 is sent to institute president James Zogby and another employee.
"Zogby's anti-Semitic, anti-American statements (and those of the AAI in general) are abhorrent, repulsive and disgusting.
"F(expletive) the Arabs and f(expletive) James Zogby and his wicked Hizbollah brothers. They will burn in hellfire on this earth and in the hereafter."
In another email days later to another female employee, Syring writes: "You are a f(expletive) anti-Semitic Arab-American stooge who sympathizes with Hezballah (sic) terror.
"You and your Arab American Institute f(expletive) should burn in the fires of hell for eternity. The IDF is bombing Lebanon back into the stone age where it belongs. Arabs are dogs. Long live the State of Israel. Death to Arab American terrorists."
The Arab American Institute is a civic group that promotes voting among its community and conducts polls and policy research, according to its website.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on August 16 that Syring had retired a month earlier, but otherwise would not comment on the ongoing legal matter.
He stressed however that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would not condone any "discrimination or hateful language."
Copyright © 2010 AFP. All rights reserved. More »
