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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. 
knowledged role in delivering arms 
to U.S.-financed anti-Sandinistal 
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 Mk 
guel d'Escoto told reporters Satur-
day night that Hall admitted spying 
on Sandinista targets for a previ-
ously unheard-of private U.S. grou 
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-
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 mtary 
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-.
fiSISM" 
63-q 
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAL 
Sam Hall, brother of Rep. Tony P. 
Hall (D-Ohio) and thought to be 
captive, in 1985 photo. 
en 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 
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THE WASHINGTON POST 
Lo Nicaragua Says American Caught at Air Base 
'VON 
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UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONAVREUTER 
Nicaraguan Foreign Minister d'Escoto shows a copy of Sam Hall's passport. 
Ir 
. NICARAGUA, From Al 
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 know!' 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, executi-- 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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