WASHINGTON -- A former mercenary says Sam Hall, the American captured two weeks ago by the Nicaraguan government, relayed detailed data about Sandinista weapons and losses in 1985 to a private U.S. network supporting Contra rebels.
Joe Adams, an American who commanded a Contra contingent, said in an interview Thursday that he hand-delivered Hall's intelligence report to Contra leader Adolfo Calero and to Tom Posey, an Alabama activist who has been supplying the Contras for several years.
Hall's six-page report contained detailed information about captured Sandinista weapons and casualties and property damage inflicted by rebel attacks, Adams said.
Adams' account suggests that Hall, who he said trained and advised 50 anti-Sandinista Indians in Honduras, had a substantial role in the private aid network dating back more than 18 months.
The FBI, which has been investigating Posey's activities, has tried repeatedly to obtain a copy of Hall's report from Adams, but Adams has refused to release it, FBI spokesman Richard Herman said.
A federal grand jury in Miami has been investigating since November whether Posey and other Americans illegally have been shipping guns to the Contras. Adams said he has been subpoenaed to testify before the grand jury in January. Hall, the brother of Rep. Tony Hall, D-Ohio, told a news conference Tuesday in his first appearance since his arrest that he had been working briefly on a small, private mission to gather intelligence on Nicaragua's Soviet-made helicopters.
Hall said in his Managua appearance that he arrived in Nicaragua Dec. 10 to perform 'reconnaissance' for a paramilitary group consisting of himself and possibly three other people. He was captured Dec. 12 near Punta Huete, a military airfield close to Managua.
Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann, Nicaragua's foreign minister, said Hall first identified himself to Nicaraguan authorities as a writer and later as an adviser to Miskito Indians fighting to overthrow the government.
Hall succeeded Adams for two or three months in the spring of 1985 as trainer and adviser to Miskito Indians who launched raids on the Sandinistas from camps on the Honduran side of the border near the town of Rus Rus, Adams said.
Adams said Hall 'knew what the hell he was talking about' as an instructor of military tactics. Hall's directions were translated into Spanish by other officers, Adams said.
Hall told the Dayton (Ohio) Daily News in January 1984 that he had received military training in Central America, Europe and the United States. The newspaper reported his passport and ticket stubs indicated trips since 1982 to El Salvador, South Africa, Thailand and Israel.
Adams, who said he served as a bodyguard to Calero after relinquishing his job as Indian commander, declined to comment on how Hall had obtained the intelligence data in 1985 or whether he had ventured inside Nicaragua at that time.
Hall's intelligence report consisted of data on AK-47 rifles and 60-mm. mortars captured by the Contras, the names of villages and bridges attacked by the rebels and Indian plans to blow up various bridges and barges, Adams said.
Adams said Posey, the head of Civilian Materiel Assistance, a non-profit group in Decatur, Ala., was interested in the information because he was providing non-lethal supplies to the Contras, recruiting for them and 'coordinating' tactics.
Hall told the Memphis Commercial Appeal in April 1985 about Indian plans to blow up certain bridges in Nicaragua. He identified himself to the newspaper as director of CMA activities in the Miskito camps in Honduras.
