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

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

Congressman Chris Smith (NJ-04) appeared as a guest on EWTN's news program "The World Over" Thursday to discuss President Obama's plan to attack Syrian. The New Jersey Congressman is a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He and host Raymond Arroyo talked about the debate in Congress on a potential U.S. military action in Syria after the recent use of chemical weapons in that country's bloody civil war. They also talked about Smith's plan to introduce a bipartisan Syrian War Cri... Read more

BY CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH - President Obama must seriously and robustly defend the Vietnamese people in their heroic struggle against an ever-worsening dictatorship led by President Truong Tan Sang. Religious persecution, torture, incarceration of journalists and bloggers as well as other human rights abuses in Vietnam have gone from bad to worse — with 2013 on track to be one of the worst ever. Within the past four months alone — on April 11 and June 4 — I’ve chaired two more congressional hearin... Read more

BY CARLOS AVILA - Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman on Thursday announced arrests of a Lakewood man and five more associates on charges of human trafficking for allegedly operating brothels in Lakewood in Ocean County that were part of a network of brothels in New Jersey. Lakewood is in Congressman Chris Smith’s district so this human trafficking arrest hits close to home, considering Smith’s longtime advocacy for trafficking victims. The law allowed federal human trafficking grants to cre... Read more

Malia Rulon Herman, Gannett Washington Bureau - Two New Jersey lawmakers who have long fought human trafficking said Thursday that in light of the massive prostitution ring uncovered in Lakewood, they would redouble efforts to call attention to the growing problem. Republican Sen. Jeff Chiesa, who has worked on human trafficking cases in his former job as the state’s attorney general, said he’s talking to both Democrats and Republicans about what more can be done legislatively to combat traffick... Read more

Six members of a human trafficking ring that moved Mexican women into the United States illegally and made them work as prostitutes, often after promising them jobs as housecleaners or baby sitters, have been arrested, state authorities said Thursday. Jose Romero-Flores, identified as the ringleader, operated three brothels in Lakewood with assistance from his girlfriend, Odulia Bedran Trejo, who helped him find women in Mexico and drove women and clients to and from the brothels, state prosecut... Read more

By Alyssa Mease/The Times of Trenton on June 28, 2013 at 8:20 AM -- Isles Inc., a group that tries to make the city more liveable and helps families improve their situations, was awarded more than $1 million from the U.S. Department of Labor to advance its program for helping high school dropouts develop construction skills. The money will go toward Isles’ YouthBuild Institute, which helps youths between the ages of 16 and 24 earn their GED or high school diploma while working in the constructio... Read more