Timing is everything

Baghdad makes Christmas official while U.S. panel condemns lack of religious freedom | Mindy Belz

Sabah Arar/AFP/Getty Images

What was that up in the sky over Baghdad? Not the usual dark Apache helicopter but a brightly colored hot-air balloon. A Christmas balloon.

Fact: In a city park police closed repeatedly because it was a favorite spot for terrorists strapped with explosives, Baghdad held its first public celebration of Christmas and kicked off the government's first-ever declaration of Christmas as an official holiday on Dec. 20.

Iraq's Interior Ministry sponsored the event, complete with a decorated tree, costumed children, a waving Santa, and the hot-air balloon bearing an Iraqi flag and a poster depicting Jesus. This is the same ministry once bedeviled with Baathist holdovers and closet jihadists, the ministry that only a few weeks ago arrested 23 of its own officers under suspicion for working to reestablish the Baath party.

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