Cong. Chris Smith (NJ-04) on the set of Fox News Channel Sunday program, America's New Headquarters, with anchor Shannon Bream discussed his resolution to create a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal as an alternative to a military attack on Syria.

    Smith, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who has announced that he will vote against authorizing President Obama’s plans for military strikes in Syria, said that a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal is a nonlethal alternative to missiles and bombs that carry huge risks of killing or maiming innocent civilians and exacerbating the conflict—all while putting American servicemembers at risk.
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     Smith pointed out that previous specialized international courts in Sierra Leone, Rwanda and Yugoslavia have been successful in holding accountable those who perpetrate war crimes.

    At a Capitol Hill hearing last week, Smith questioned Secretary of State John Kerry about the Administration’s weak record on human rights, especially and including in Syria. Smith pointed to a September 3^rd New York Times editorial that said it was “alarming” that President Obama did not “long ago put into place, with our allies and partners, a plan for international action.”

     In June Smith chaired a hearing on human rights abuses in Syria entitled “Religious Minorities in Syria: Caught in the Middle,” Click here to read the witnesses statements, or to watch the hearing.