NICARAGUA HOLDING AMERICAN AS SPY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000302450006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 21, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 15, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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t .- Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302450006-3
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";ASHINGTON POST
15 December 1986
Nicaragua Holding
American as S
Prisoner Said to Be Congressman's Brother
By Edward Cody
Wi'hmgtnn Pnt ,)reign Service
MANAGUA, Nicaragua, Dec.
14-The Nicaraguan government
has arrested as a suspected spy an
American who is believed to be an
Ohio congressman !s brother.
The American. whose U.S. pass-
port identified him as Sam Slew
Hall was arrested ridgy 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
tormally, joined Eugene Hasenfus
as a prisoner of the Sandinistas,
accused of illegal activities in Nic-
aragua in support of Reagan admin-
istration policy against the Mana-
gua government. Hasenfus. from
Marinette, Wis., was sentenced
Nov. 15 to a 30-year prison term
for his acknowledged role in deliv-
ering 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 Halt
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
later admitted that he was gather-
ing 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
years as Nicaragua's main military
air base. 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 leg-
islator and Olympic diving star, told
an interviewer last year that he has
helped train Miskito Indians, fighting
the Sandinista goverment as part of a
U.S.-backed insurrection. Sandinista
authorities said Hall's passport
showed he came to Managua on
Wednesday from Tegucigalpa, the
capital of Honduras and headquar-
ters for the main rebel group. D'Es-
coto was quoted 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 pny
for his safety," said a statement by
Rep. Hall, who has strongly op-
posed 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, executive director
of the U.S. Council for World Free-
dom, in Phoenix, Ariz., which pro-
vides food and medical supplies to
the rebels, denied any connection
between her organization and the
group named by Nicaraguan officials.
Spokesman Jim Kent of Civilian I
Material Assistance, a Memphis-
based group that claims to have
provided the contras with $4 million
in nonlethal supplies and equipment
last year, said no one named Sam
Hall is a member. In his 1985 inter-
view, Hall told The Associated
Press he was working with the
group, then named Civilian .Military
Assistance.
Staff writerMfichael Weisskopf in-
Washington, contributed to this
report.
STAT
STAT
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/07/22 : CIA-RDP90-00552R000302450006-3