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ashi
110TH YEAR) .
No. 10 ...
€ 1986, The Washington Post Company
MONDAY, DECEMBER 15, 1
Nicaragua Holding
American as Spy
Prisoner Said to Be Congressman's Brother
By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Dec.
14-The Nicaraguan government
has arrested as a suspected spy an
American who is believed to be an
Ohio congressmen's brother.
The American, whose U.S. pass-
port identified him as Sam Nesley
Hall, 49, was arrested Friday morn-
ing near the Punta Huete military
airfield, about 12 miles north of Ma-
nagua,
Sandinista
officials an-
nounced Saturday night.
A spokesman for Rep. Tony P.
Hall (D-Ohio) said today he believes
the captive is Hall's brother, a self-
styled counterterrorism expert who
the aide said has been a mercenary
in Angola and Rhodesia, now Zim-
babwe.
Hall, who has yet to be charged
formally, joined Eugene Hasenfus
as a prisoner of the Sandinistas, ac-
cused of illegal activities in Nicara-
gua in support of Reagan adminis-
tration policy against the Managua
government. Hasenfus, from Mari-
nette, Wis., was sentenced Nov. 15
to a 30-year prison term for his ac-
knowledged role in delivering arms
to U.S .- financed anti-Sandinista;
forces.
The Reagan administration de -!
nies any connection to the rebel:
supply operation.
State Department spokesman.
Bruce Ammerman, said it is impos-,
sible to identify the detainee or his;
job because the Sandinista govern -.
ment has refused to permit the U.S.
consul general in Managua to visit:
him. Ammerman said he had no in-
formation on whether a Sam Hall
worked for any part of the U.S. gov-
ernment.
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister Mi-'
guel d'Escoto told reporters Satur-
day night that Hall admitted spying
on Sandinista targets for a previ-
ously unheard-of private U.S. group
called the Phoenix Battalion. There
was no description of this group or
. its leadership, nor whether Hall's
claim about it was being taken se-
riously by Sandinista authorities.
D'Escoto said Hall was captured
with sketches and maps hidden in
his socks. Hall first claimed to be a
writer, the minister related, but lat-
V 079
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL
Sam Hall, brother of Rep. Tony P.
Hall (D-Ohio) and thought to be
captive, in 1985 photo.
er admitted that he was gathering
intelligence for the private group.
According to D'Escoto, Hall said
the Phoenix Battalion specializes in
military. espionage in consonance
with U.S. policy.
The Punta Huete airfield was
constructed during the past two
See NICARAGUA, A33, Col. 1
+ 003
Press Curbs
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THE WASHINGTON POST
Nicaragua Says American Caught at Air Base
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 - CIA-RDP96-00789R002000760002-5 :
.
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL/REUTER
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister d'Escoto shows a copy of Sam Hall's passport.
NICARAGUA, From A1
years as Nicaragua's main military
airbase. U.S. officials have said it
was prepared to handle MiG fight-
ers and also could service the larg-
est aircraft in the Soviet fleet. But
the Sandinista government is not
known to have acquired any Soviet-
built MiG jets and no large Soviet
military planes are known to be us-
ing the facility.
D'Escoto said Hall's objectives
demonstrated the truth of frequent
Sandinista assertions that the Rea-
gan administration is planning an
attack on Nicaragua. "The type of
information that was being regis-
tered by this man, like bridges and
airports ... only helped confirm
the seriousness" of the Nicaraguan
.predictions, he told Mutual Broad-
casting System.
Sam Hall, a former Ohio state
legislator and Olympic diving star,
told an interviewer last year that he
has helped train Miskito Indian reb-
els fighting the Sandinista gover-
ment as part of a U.S .- backed in-
surrection. Sandinista authorities
said Hall's passport showed he
came to Managua on Wednesday
from Tegucigalpa, the capital of
Honduras and headquarters for the
main rebel group. D'Escoto was
quoted here as saying he came on a
commercial flight and took a taxi to
the air base.
The passport also carried visas
from Israel, El Salvador and South
Africa, officials said.
"I do not share the same views on
U.S. policy in Central America as
my brother, but I love him and pray
for his safety," said a statement is-
sued by Rep. Hall, who has strongly
opposed U.S. aid to the rebels. In an
interview last year with The Asso-
ciated Press, Sam Hall said he was
working with Civilian Military As-
sistance.
The U.S .- based private group,
headed by an Alabama veteran
named Tom Posey, has organized
aid for the Nicaraguan rebel organ-
izations and coordinated travel to
Central America by volunteers ea-
ger to work with the guerrillas.
Officials of -private American
groups known to support the Ni-
caraguan contras said in interviews
that they had never heard of Sam
Hall or the Phoenix Battalion.
Joyce Downey, executing direc-
tor of the U.S. Council for World
Freedom, in Phoenix, Ariz., which
provides food and medical supplies
to the rebels, denied any connection
between her organization and the
group named by Nicaraguan, offi-
cials.
Staff writer Michael Weisskopf, in
Washington, contributed to this
report.
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