Pastor questioned over loyalist attacks
By Pádraig MacDabhaid
Clifford Peebles, self-appointed Protestant fundamentalist pastor,
was arrested on Wednesday 28 April and taken to Castlereagh for
questioning.
He was later released without charge but it is believed he was
arrested in relation to investigations into recent loyalist attacks
carried out by the so called Orange Volunteers and Red Hand
Defenders.
Peebles, from the Woodvale Road in the loyalist Shankill district of
North Belfast, was questioned last year after a cache of weapons was
discovered at a mission hall where he was a keyholder. Significant in
this cache were Russian-made grenades which were of the same type as
those used by the Orange Volunteers when they held a show of strength
last December. These weapons, it is believed, are from the same cache
that was brought into the Six Counties for loyalist use by British
army intelligence agent Brian Nelson in the 1980s.
Pastor Clifford Peebles is also a former member of FAIT and has been
highly active in the Justice for Protestants group, which has been
behind marches and protests in support of Orangemen at Drumcree.
Peebles latest arrest came as another Protestant fundamentalist
Pastor has launched an Internet site to promote his brand of hardline
loyalism. Pastor Alan Campbell, one Sunday newspaper claims, has been
a fringe figure in loyalism for nearly 30 years. Campbell, who
teaches at Newtownabbey Community High School, is using his Web site
to promote the book of assassinated loyalist bigot George Seawright,
who was best known for his comments that ``Catholics and priests
should be burned''. Campbell's site also peddles the view that
Protestants or loyalists are descended from the lost tribe of Israel.
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