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Change Your Life! |
Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair back in prison |
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August 24, 2000
BELFAST (AP) - Determined to suppress rising violence among Northern Ireland's pro-British gangs, Britain on Tuesday ordered the most notorious terrorist within their warring ranks to be put back behind bars. After dark in Belfast, police stopped a car containing Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair, ordered him at gunpoint onto the ground and handcuffed him. He was transferred by helicopter to Northern Ireland's Maghaberry prison under the orders of Britain's minister responsible for the province, Peter Mandelson. The move came 11 months after Adair, 36, was paroled from prison under terms of Northern Ireland's 1998 peace accord - and a day after two Protestant militants were gunned down in a vicious feud involving Adair. "My priority is public safety, and I cannot give freedom to an individual intent on abusing it," said Mandelson, who retains control over security affairs despite the recent formation of a local Catholic-Protestant administration. Mandelson took the decision after consulting commanders of Northern Ireland's police force and British army garrison, who credited Adair with playing a central role in recent violence. The peace accord granted Mandelson the power to order paroled terrorists back to jail, to serve the outstanding portions of their sentences, if they became reinvolved in violence. "A man who, with his associates, has been inciting so much violence in recent days has been removed," Mandelson said. Police in armored cars and full riot gear flooded the area around Adair's house in the hard-line Shankill district while detectives conducted a detailed search of the property. Angry crowds gathered but didn't try to attack the security forces. British authorities had come under mounting pressure to reimprison Adair, a senior figure in the outlawed Ulster Defense Association, following Monday's fatal shootings, which were blamed on a rival band of outlaws called the Ulster Volunteer Force. One of those slain was a close associate of Adair, and the UDA vowed immediate revenge. Britain deployed police and soldiers into the Shankill district, deterring further violence there overnight. But elsewhere several homes belonging to UVF supporters were attacked late Monday and early Tuesday. The wave of intimidation caused no casualties but spurred more than two dozen families to flee their homes. While mainstream Catholic and Protestant leaders welcomed Mandelson's move against Adair, politicians linked to both the UDA and UVF warned it would spur more violence. John White, himself a paroled UDA murderer, said the crackdown on such a "key" UDA member would "inflame the situation." And Billy Hutchinson, another paroled murderer who represents the UVF-linked Progressive Unionist Party, predicted that "the feud will now intensify, and I'd expect attacks against our party and the UVF." Adair, instantly recognizable with his fireplug bodybuilder's physique and clean-shaven head, had played a prominent role in recent months in stoking up UDA confrontation with the UVF. Last weekend, clashes broke out between rival groups when Adair led a UDA parade up the Shankill Road. The UDA and UVF called a joint cease-fire in October 1994, halting their decades of terror attacks on Northern Ireland's substantial Catholic minority. But the two groups have increasingly clashed with each other over control of criminal rackets within Belfast's most impoverished and bitter Protestant neighborhoods. Adair had outspokenly opposed the UDA-UVF truce, famously calling for peace campaigners to "stuff your doves," a reference to peace doves. But he made that comment behind bars, having been convicted months before of directing terrorism, a new charge specially drawn up to secure his imprisonment. He had been caught on tape boasting to undercover police officers about his role in killing more than a dozen Catholic civilians. Adair received a 16-year sentence. But as part of the Good Friday accord, more than 400 convicted terrorists from the Irish Republican Army and pro-British groups gained early freedom. Adair was paroled in September 1999 - and has rarely strayed far from the political spotlight since. In July he led scores of UDA members to the sectarian flashpoint of Portadown, where British authorities since 1998 have blocked Protestants from staging an annual parade through the town's main Catholic enclave. Adair cheered as a trio of masked Portadown gunmen fired shots into the air for TV cameras. The UDA went on to play a major role in several nights of widespread rioting that failed to overturn the ban on the march. Police and politicians also accused him of being a big player in the UDA's trafficking of illegal drugs, a charge he denied. |
