Titled:   Woman killed, five others wounded in shooting at Seattle Jewish Federation

The Seattle Times:

The man accused of barging into the offices of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle and killing one woman and wounding five others will be prosecuted on state murder and attempted-murder charges rather than federal hate-crime laws, officials said.

Federal hate-crimes:

SEC. 280003. DIRECTION TO UNITED STATES SENTENCING COMMISSION REGARDING SENTENCING ENHANCEMENTS FOR HATE CRIMES.

(a) DEFINITION- In this section, `hate crime' means a crime in which the defendant intentionally selects a victim, or in the case of a property crime, the property that is the object of the crime, because of the actual or perceived race, color, religion, national origin, ethnicity, gender, disability, or sexual orientation of any person.
(b) SENTENCING ENHANCEMENT- Pursuant to section 994 of title 28, United States Code, the United States Sentencing Commission shall promulgate guidelines or amend existing guidelines to provide sentencing enhancements of not less than 3 offense levels for offenses that the finder of fact at trial determines beyond a reasonable doubt are hate crimes. In carrying out this section, the United States Sentencing Commission shall ensure that there is reasonable consistency with other guidelines, avoid duplicative punishments for substantially the same offense, and take into account any mitigating circumstances that might justify exceptions.

The guy in question:

Haq, a U.S.-born Muslim, told authorities he was angered by the war in Iraq and U.S. military cooperation with Israel. According to a statement of probable cause, Haq told a 911 dispatcher: "These are Jews and I'm tired of getting pushed around and our people getting pushed around by the situation in the Middle East."

This fine, upstanding member of the muslim community, does have an admitted penchant for dancing naked in shopping mall fountains.

The venue:

The Jewish federation, a group covering the Jewish community around the Puget Sound region, had organized a large rally last weekend to demonstrate support for Israel in its fight against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon.

At a news conference on Friday, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels said, "This was a purposeful, hateful act as far as we know, by an individual acting alone."

So we have a quiet, loner muslim, with few friends, who get upset, buys a couple of guns (while under arraignment for the exposure charges, which should have failed the background check) and attacks a Jewish organisation because it is Jewish, and manages somehow to be charged not for hate crimes, carrying longer and harsher penalties, but state murder and attempted-murder instead.

I wonder what kind of crimes they had in mind when they thought up hate crimes?