UK News 23-08-2000 "Mad Dog" Adair Back In Jail who: Terrorist Johnny `Mad Dog` Adair what: Arrested and returned to jail where: BELFAST when: Last night snippet: "Johnny Adair, the notorious loyalist paramilitary leader who orchestrated the violent feuding in Belfast, was arrested last night and sent back to prison," reports today`s Guardian, "in an attempt to calm the atmosphere in Northern Ireland." "Mad Dog" Adair, thought to be the leader of the illegal Ulster Freedom Fighters, was released in September 1999 on licence from the Maze Prison under the terms of the Good Friday Agreement. He is suspected to have orchestrated Monday`s loyalist turf war which provoked the return of British troops to Belfast. "Mr Mandelson, the Northern Ireland Secretary, made the decision," says The Times. "Adair, 36, was arrested shortly after 8pm when his Vauxhall Cavalier was boxed in by four armoured personnel carriers as he was being driven up the Shankhill Road." "My priority is public safety and I cannot give freedom to an individual intent on abusing it," said Mr Mandelson yesterday. "I am satisfied that this particular individual has breached the terms of his licence." "It is time for all of us to confront the dark side of Northern Ireland`s society," he continued, "the mafia culture created by decades of paramilitary conflict... I just want to make this clear. Nobody is untouchable in Northern Ireland, nobody is above the law". [... more]

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