By
The Associated Press
BELFAST, Northern Ireland - Parole officials ordered notorious anti-Catholic militant Johnny "Mad Dog" Adair to remain behind bars yesterday; a change of heart that may cause more difficulties for Northern Ireland's troubled peace accord.
The British government, police and moderate Protestant and Catholic politicians all welcomed the news that Adair had been denied parole from Maghaberry prison. But the decision inflamed opinion within Adair's outlawed Ulster Defense Association, a volatile Protestant group that has orchestrated violence in response to previous setbacks for its most high-profile commander.
"People are understandably angry," said Adair's close associate, John White, himself a paroled murderer. "They're asking why they should go on supporting the Good Friday agreement when its benefits can be taken away at a whim."
White said Adair's lawyers would try to appeal. Northern Ireland's well-armored police force, meanwhile, prepared for possible street protests by UDA members in Belfast after dark yesterday particularly within Adair's power base in an impoverished Protestant district called the Shankill.
Supporters in the Shankill have pasted up posters bearing a photo of their bald hero and the motto: "Free Johnny Adair now! His only crime is loyalty."
Dubbed "Mad Dog" by Ireland's tabloid press, Adair, 36, has rarely shied away from pumping up his notorious image. His bragging to undercover police led to his 1994 arrest, conviction and 16-year sentence.
To the disgust of many people in the province, the 1998 Good Friday peace accord delivered swift paroles for convicted terrorists like Adair. Prisoner releases were considered essential to maintaining the cease-fires being observed by the UDA and Irish Republican Army.
Adair emerged from prison in 1999 with a new range of tattoos and earrings to go with a bulked-up physique. Surrounded by camera crews, he smirked as his friend White praised him for being a stalwart supporter of the peace process.
Adair soon steered his Shankill comrades into confrontation with another truce-observing group, the Ulster Volunteer Force. That conflict left seven Protestants dead and forced hundreds to flee their homes. Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson singled out Adair for blame in the feud and ordered him back to jail.
But last week, with the feud declared over, Northern Ireland's parole commissioners ruled that Adair should be freed once again.
Mandelson, police commanders and senior politicians immediately appealed and presented two days of evidence in private to the commissioners linking Adair to renewed terrorism, drug dealing and other criminal rackets.
Yesterday, the commissioners said they had heard sufficient "damaging information" including accounts of Adair threatening people in a taxi depot to persuade them that he "is likely, if released, to breach the terms of his license."
