Written by Dan Radel, Asbury Park Press- Sea Girt and Point Pleasant Borough were awarded grants from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to cover 90 percent of costs that were a result of superstorm Sandy, officials confirmed. The boroughs will cover the remaining 10 percent. “This is very welcomed. We’ll be able to pay back our loan and refurbish our cash reserves,” said William Schroeder, Point Pleasant’s mayor. “It will make it easier on our residents.” Point Pleasant will receive $1.3 m... Read more

As talks continue about the situation in Syria, Congressman Chris Smith (R-4) wants the UN Security Council to establish a war crimes tribunal to hold President Bashar al Assad and others accountable for the use of chemical weapons. Smith told NJ Today Managing Editor Mike Schneider that he believes President Barack Obama made a mistake by threatening force in the region and wants other measures pursued. Smith said the international community has created successful tribunals in the past and bel... Read more

The strained state of U.S.-Zimbabwe relations was the topic of a congressional hearing held Thursday by U.S. Congressman Chris Smith, Chairman of the U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations. “The United States has experienced a troubled relationship with Zimbabwe since this southern African nation achieved majority rule in 1980,” said Smith, noting that Robert Mugabe, the liberation leader who has led the country for the past the deca... Read more

The promotion of sex-selection abortion as a population control strategy, crafted in the United States by Planned Parenthood, the Population Council and others and then exported worldwide, has resulted millions of missing girls in India, China and elsewhere, a congressional human rights panel was told at a Sept. 10 hearing. Congressional testimony by Mara Hvistendahl, a correspondent and contributing editor with Science Magazine, pointed out that “Sex-selective abortion following ultrasound scan... Read more

The Borough of Sea Girt in Monmouth County is slated to receive a grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which has awarded more than $1.6 million to help pay for costs that resulted from Superstorm Sandy, U.S. Rep. Chris Smith (NJ-04) said today. The grant will provide $1,616,817 in Federal funding to Sea Girt to pay for 90 percent of over $1,796,000 in repair costs incurred by Superstorm Sandy. According to FEMA, reconstruction will take shape in two phases, after the comple... Read more

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) today gave a live 45-minute interview on C-SPAN's Washington Journal about President Obama's push to use military force in Syria, and on Smith's own resolution to create a Syrian War Crimes Tribunal. On set with moderator Pedro Echevarria, Smith took questions from across the nation, defending his own opposition to President Obama's plan to strike Syria, and recalling Secretary of State John Kerry evading Smith's direct question during a hearing last week as to wh... Read more

A bipartisan group of lawmakers has introduced legislation in the House of Representatives calling for the establishment of a war crimes tribunal to investigate and prosecute “war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide, whether committed by officials of the Government of Syria, or members or other groups involved in civil war in Syria.” “There is a non-lethal way to help ensure that Bashar al-Assad and other perpetrators of atrocities in Syria are held to account—not someday far in the fu... Read more

By Chris Smith, published Monday, September 9, 2013 by The Washington Post -- There is a non-lethal way to help ensure that Bashar al-Assad and other perpetrators of atrocities in Syria are held to account not someday far in the future but beginning now. The U.N. Security Council must move immediately to establish a Syria War Crimes Tribunal. Past ad hoc war crimes tribunals including courts for the former Yugoslavia, Sierra Leone and Rwanda have made a difference, but sent thugs to jail after h... Read more

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... Read more

By Washington Post reporter Brad Plumer: Are there ways to respond to the atrocities in Syria without U.S. military action? Rep. Chris Smith thinks so. Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), left, and Secretary of State John Kerry at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Syria on Wednesday. The House Republican from New Jersey introduced a bill Wednesday to set up a Syrian war crimes tribunal as an alternative to missile strikes against Bashar Assad’s government. Smith’s resolution would call ... Read more