Va. man indicted for threatening Arabs

A Virginia man was indicted Wednesday on charges that he left threatening messages at an Arab political organization in the U.S. during fighting between Israel and Hezbollah in the Middle East last year.

Patrick Syring left phone and e-mail messages last summer with the Arab American Institute saying, "The only good Lebanese is a dead Lebanese. The only good Arab is a dead Arab," federal prosecutors said.

At the time, Israeli was bombing targets in Lebanon while Hezbollah was firing rockets into northern Israel. James Zogby, the founder of the Arab American Institute, criticized the U.S. for not doing enough to protect U.S. citizens visiting family members in Lebanon.

Syring, in expletive-laced messages, accused Zogby of being anti-Semitic, prosecutors said.

"You wicked evil Hezbollah-supporting Arabs should burn in the fires of hell for eternity and beyond," Syring wrote in one e-mail, according the prosecutors. "The United States would be safer without you."

Syring, according to an e-mail cited in the indictment, praised Israeli forces for "bombing Lebanon back to the Stone Age where it belongs" and said "Arabs are dogs."

Syring faces charges of threatening and violating civil rights laws. The indictment was signed by Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim, the Justice Department's top civil rights prosecutor, and U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Taylor.

Syring identified himself in one phone message and sent e-mails from his personal account, prosecutors said. He did not return a message seeking comment left at his home in Arlington, Va.