Federal prosecutors say a former foreign service officer who threatened employees of an Arab organization has been sentenced to a year in prison.
Fifty-year-old Patrick Syring of Arlington, Va., pleaded guilty last month to a federal civil rights charge and transmitting threats across state lines. On Friday he received a one-year sentence for each count, to be served concurrently.
Syring admitted that in July 2006 he sent threatening e-mails and voice mails to six employees of the Arab American Institute, a nonprofit organization that promotes Arab-American participation in the U.S. electoral system and public policy issues.
Syring retired from the State Department in July 2007.
