Racist US Diplomat Quits

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is serious about not tolerating "discrimination or hateful language" in the workplace, said State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack, Reuters reported Friday, August 17.

"It is just not condoned or acceptable in this department," McCormack said.

The diplomat, Patrick Syring, have made the comments in a series of e-mails and voice mails to officials the Arab American Institute, including its president James Zogby, when Israel was at war with Lebanon in July 2006.

"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," Syring said in a voice mail recorded at the institute on July 17, 2006.

IDF stands for Israel Defense Forces — the Israeli military.

"[Expletive] the Arabs and [Expletive] James Zogby and his wicked Hizbullah brothers. They will burn in hellfire on this earth and in the hereafter," he wrote in an e-mail to Zogby and another institute employee on the same day.

Two days later he left another offensive voice mail to Zoby: "You are a [expletive] anti-Semitic Arab-American stooge who sympathizes with Hizbullah terror. You and your Arab American Institute [expletive] should burn in the fires of hell for eternity. The IDF is bombing Lebanon back into the stone age where it belongs."

Syring served as a U.S. diplomat in the Middle East and most recently worked in Human Resources at the State Department.

Indicted

Syring was accused by a federal jury of having made abusive, intimidating and racist comments, and violating the civil rights of Institute employees.

The offensive mails were quoted in the indictment.

But Syring defended himself and said he will not apologize.

"Mr. Syring will plead not guilty to the charges, denies that he had committed any crime and plans on vigorously defending himself in court," his lawyer David Schertler writes in an e-mail to USA TODAY.

The Arab American Institute welcomed the indictment of Syring.

"We are pleased with word that the grand jury has returned two indictments," Zogby said in a statement on the Institute's website.

"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 – and the fact that Mr. Syring was a 20-year career officer at the Department of State made it of even greater concern."

Syring's derogatory remarks were the latest reported in a torrent of statements offensive to Arabs and Muslims in the United States by leading public figures including pastors and politicians.

Early this month, Colorado Rep. and Republican presidential hopeful Tom Tancredo said that the best way to deter a nuclear terrorist attack on the US was to threaten to bomb the Muslim holy cities of Makkah and Madinah.

Last year, prominent pastor Rev. O'Neal Dozier, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, told a Radio show that Islam was a "cult" and "dangerous" religion.

Prompt action by US Muslim and Arab leaders have forced racists critical of Islam and Arabs to offer apologies and backtrack on their offensive remarks.