BUTLER INQUIRY: Fathers of lost sons round on PM for `needless war'.THE fathers of two North Wales North Wales (known in some archaic texts as Northgalis) is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales, bordered to the south by Mid Wales and to the east by England. soldiers killed in Iraq, last night rounded on prime minister Tony Blair, claiming he was to blame for their sons' deaths. Reg Keys, of Llanuwchllyn, near Bala, whose son, Lieutenant-Corporal Thomas Keys, 20, was one of six Royal Military Policemen murdered in an attack on a police station by 400 Iraqis, made the claim following the publication of the Butler Report. Mr Keys said: ``It doesn't nail anybody at all. It does not appear to apportion ap·por·tion tr.v. ap·por·tioned, ap·por·tion·ing, ap·por·tions To divide and assign according to a plan; allot: "The tendency persists to apportion blame as suits the circumstances" blame to anyone -- no one is accountable and no heads have rolled. ``Blair may say he accepts the report's findings but he has still has not said sorry for sending my son and thousands of others to an unnecessary war. ``Tom went to war believing that he was defending his country from a serious threat from weapons of mass destruction Weapons that are capable of a high order of destruction and/or of being used in such a manner as to destroy large numbers of people. Weapons of mass destruction can be high explosives or nuclear, biological, chemical, and radiological weapons, but exclude the means of transporting or . ``Butler's report says this was not the case and these weapons did not exist. This is a slap in the face to the relatives of those who have died, and yet another twist of the knife. ``Blair was wrong and he owes me an apology. '' Mr Keys, 52, who has campaigned tirelessly to try and find out how his son and the other five Redcaps died, added that he didn't believe Mr Blair could use hindsight as an excuse for not knowing that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. Mr Keys said: ``He was the man at the top. I feel he should do the decent thing and resign. He's the one who told the country we should go to war and were in danger from weapons of mass destruction. '' And he criticised Mr Blair for not apologising to the families of the 60 British soldiers killed in Iraq. He said: ``Had my son being killed by a weapon of mass destruction weapon of mass destruction (WMD) Weapon with the capacity to inflict death and destruction indiscriminately and on a massive scale. The term has been in currency since at least 1937, when it was used to describe massed formations of bomber aircraft. I would have accepted it, but Mr Blair got it wrong. That I find difficult to stomach. '' Yesterday Gordon Evans, father of Lance Bombardier Llywelyn Evans, 24, who was killed in a helicopter crash on the first day of the war, also criticised the report for not blaming anybody for the flawed intelligence. Mr Evans, 46, said: ``Mr Blair has deceived everybody. ``I just feel it's a waste of my son's life. He was sent to war for the wrong reasons. '' Meanwhile Tony Blair has pledged to help bring the killers of Tom Keys to justice, calming fears that the mob that slaughtered the Redcap red·cap n. A porter, usually in a railroad station. Noun 1. redcap - a member of the military police in Britain Britain, Great Britain, U.K. would be granted an amnesty, following the transfer of sovereignty in Iraq. |
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