Blog from the Capital

The US Commission on International Religious Freedom is slated to submit its yearly report to the State Department, including its list of recommendations for "countries of particular concern." A brief CNN report says that, unsurprisingly, "At a news conference Thursday on Capitol Hill, commissioners...left little doubt that they believe China and North Korea should be on that list." But the New York Sun says there may be less agreement among the Commission on one key portion of the report which will be delayed by a month: Iraq.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom is split along party lines over whether to designate Iraq as a "country of particular concern" for religious freedom.
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The decision to delay the decision for a month was preceded by a bitter fight along Republican and Democratic lines over a draft chapter about Iraq in the panel's annual religious freedom report.
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The 10-person commission was on the verge of recommending the designation of Iraq until one Republican-appointed commissioner, Nina Shea, opted to support the decision to take another month.
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Ms. Shea added, though, that reliable data on this question was hard to come by. She said that was one of the reasons the commission would be traveling to Damascus this month, to conduct more interviews with persecuted religious minorities forced to flee Iraq. "I wasn't satisfied with our findings on this in the end," she said. "We want to go Syria and learn more. Part of the problem is there are not many good reports out there."