Gwen Graham: “the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act takes important and valuable steps, and I would have…”

“the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act takes important and valuable steps, and I would have voted for it had I been present, but I am concerned that it may not go far enough. Syria has long been recognized as a state sponsor of terrorism. In fact, the Syrians themselves openly speak of their support for terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Intelligence reports and terrorism experts tell us that the next generation of terrorists is being trained in a network of training facilities that exist in Syria and the Syrian-controlled parts of Lebanon. These international terrorist organizations that run these camps already have the capacity to kill Americans, and they have state sponsors with access to weapons of mass destruction. Prior to 9/11, Hezbollah was responsible for the deaths of more Americans than any other terrorist group. On September 18, 2001, the Senate passed S.J. Res 23, which authorized the President to use ``all necessary and appropriate force'' against those responsible for the attacks of 9/11. This authorization for the use of force is therefore limited to al-Qaeda. We ignore other terrorist networks at our peril--and at one point, President Bush recognized that. Nine days after the terrorist attack of September 11, the President declared: ``Our war on terror begins with al-Qaeda but it does not end there.…”