President Bush yesterday vowed to fire anyone in his administration if he or she illegally leaked the name of a CIA employee, but also called for a swift conclusion to a probe of the case.
“If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration,” Mr. Bush said in the East Room during a press conference with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean accused the president of lowering “the ethics bar” by refusing to fire anyone unless it is established that a crime was committed. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, added on CNN that Mr. Bush was “trying to move the goalposts.”
But White House officials insisted that the standard has not been changed since September 2003, when the CIA requested a federal probe into whether someone in the administration had publicly disclosed the identity of CIA employee Valerie Plame.
“If the person has violated law, the person will be taken care of,” Mr. Bush said Sept. 30, 2003. “If somebody did leak classified information, I’d like to know it, and we’ll take the appropriate action.”
Eight months later, when a reporter asked Mr. Bush whether he stood by his pledge to fire “anybody who leaked the agent’s name,” he replied, “Yes.”
Yesterday, Mr. Bush declined to comment on whether he was disappointed with White House Deputy Chief of Staff Karl Rove for alluding to Mrs. Plame during a conversation with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper in July 2003. Mr. Rove did not reveal her name or whether she was a covert agent, disclosures that might have violated federal law.
“I didn’t know her name and I didn’t leak her name,” Mr. Rove said last August.
Nonetheless, Democrats are demanding that the president fire Mr. Rove or suspend his security clearance. White House officials are refusing to entertain such demands in the absence of evidence that Mr. Rove broke any law.
The flap began in July 2003, when Mrs. Plame’s husband, Joseph C. Wilson IV, accused the Bush administration of exaggerating intelligence to justify war against Iraq. In a New York Times column, the former ambassador said he was sent to Africa at the behest of Vice President Dick Cheney to investigate reports of a uranium deal between Niger and Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussain.
But Mr. Cheney never ordered Mr. Wilson’s mission, which was arranged by his wife, Mrs. Plame. This fact was mentioned to Mr. Cooper by both Mr. Rove and Lewis “Scooter” Libby, Mr. Cheney’s chief of staff, although neither mentioned Mrs. Plame’s name.
White House officials would have had to knowingly reveal Mrs. Plame’s identity to violate a federal law protecting CIA covert agents. The law defines covert agents as those who have worked abroad within the past five years, a condition Mrs. Plame appears not to have met.
Yesterday, the president complained of excessive press speculation about the probe, which is being conducted by special prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald.
“We have a serious ongoing investigation here, and it’s being played out in the press,” Mr. Bush said. “It’s best that people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions — and I will do so, as well.”
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