Adolfo Calero

Following are excerpts from testimony Wednesday by contra leader Adolfo Calero, who was asked by Senate committee counsel Paul Barbadoro and several senators to specify the source of the money he received during a congressional ban on U.S. support to the Nicaraguan rebels. In addition, Calero was asked about direct CIA help at the time, when such aid would have been illegal, and about any roles of President Reagan and Vice President George Bush in details of the operation: (Sen.

In an effort to save the credibility of their movement, conservative leaders of the Nicaraguan insurgency have forged a new alliance with rebels based in Costa Rica. The U.S.-backed contras have agreed on a proposed seven-member directorate that encompasses the moderate Southern Opposition Bloc but that will leave the conservative Nicaraguan Democratic Force in control of the rebel movement.

U.S. Ambassador Lewis Tambs and at least two CIA officials in Central America assisted private efforts to equip the Nicaraguan resistance with weapons at a time when the U.S. government was strictly prohibited by Congress from providing military aid, a key operative in the supply network testified Tuesday. Robert W. Owen, who served as a go-between with the rebels for then-White House aide Oliver L.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is investigating reports that Nicaraguan rebels and their American supporters have helped smuggle cocaine into the United States, but Drug Enforcement Administration officials say their agents have found no evidence to support any of the charges.

Lt. Col. Oliver L. North, acting as unofficial quartermaster for the Nicaraguan resistance, doled out tens of thousands of dollars to contra leaders from his White House safe at a time when the Reagan Administration was prohibited by Congress from assisting the rebels, the man who acted as North's courier told Senate and House investigating committees Thursday. The testimony of Robert W.

Inside a battered steel hangar on an inconspicuous little airfield in San Diego County, three small airplanes are being fitted out to become part of an unpredictable but potentially volatile new factor in Central America's guerrilla wars--the contras' air force. Nicaragua's rebels, with help from a network of former U.S.

After just two weeks, the congressional hearings on the Iran- contra affair have already revealed widespread and hitherto secret Administration efforts to raise money for and run weapons to the Nicaraguan rebels during the two years when Congress had prohibited government aid. Whether the Administration violated the letter of the law--or just exploited its loopholes--has yet to be determined. But as Sen. William S. Cohen (R-Me.

Nicaragua's Contra rebels told President Daniel Ortega today they would extend a cease-fire in Nicaragua indefinitely but saw no reason for a meeting on the subject, a Contra leader said. Adolfo Calero, in a telephone interview from Miami, also said the movement of Contra troops within Nicaragua in recent days did not represent a change in the military situation.

The leader of the largest anti-Sandinista rebel group charged Saturday that the Nicaraguan army is using chemical weapons in its fight against the contras. "We have found gas masks and very sophisticated rocket launchers used to fire these chemical arms," said Adolfo Calero, leader of Honduran-based Nicaraguan Democratic Force, in a broadcast over the clandestine rebel radio stations.