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Institutional
Affiliations
Center
for Religious Freedom, Freedom House: Director (1986-present)
(1)
Puebla
Institute: Former board president (2)
Government
Posts/Panels/Commissions
U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom: Member (1)
U.S. Department
of State Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom Abroad: Member
(1997-1999) (1)
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Highlights
& Quotes
Shea, a longtime
associate of Freedom House, is a member of the US Commission on
International Religious Freedom, a quasi-governmental body that
is heavily involved in Sudan issues and was formerly headed by Elliott
Abrams. The commission is closely tied to Freedom House and is considered
a creature of the Christian Right. (5)
Shea's rightwing
ties date back to the 1980s, when she worked for the Puebla Institute,
an outfit aimed at fighting the influence of liberation theology
in Latin America. Puebla was widely considered to have collaborated
with the Nicaraguan Contras. In fact, former Nicaraguan contra leader
Edgar Chamorro once said that Puebla Institute's founder, Humberto
Belli, had a working relationship with the contra leadership. This
relationship, according to Chamorro, was fostered by the CIA when
the Agency recommended that rebels exploit religious factors in
their fight against the Sandinistas. The CIA-organized contra Directorate
suggested Belli to head the organization. Belli was a Catholic intellectual
who had had quarrels with the Nicaraguan government. (2)
According to
her Freedom House bio: "Nina Shea is the director of the Center
for Religious Freedom, which she helped found in 1986 as the Puebla
Institute. A human rights lawyer, she has been an international
religious freedom advocate for 18 years and is nationally known
for her book on anti-Christian persecution, In the Lion's Den. In
1999, she was appointed to serve as a member of the U.S. Commission
on International Religious Freedom, which was created under the
International Religious Freedom Act to monitor religious persecution
and recommend policy responses to the U.S. government. From 1997
to 1999, she served on the Advisory Committee on Religious Freedom
Abroad to the U.S. Secretary of State. Newsweek magazine accredited
Shea with making 'Christian persecution Washington's hottest cause.'"
(4)
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