CIA agent’s husband sees W. House cover-up on leak

By Sue Pleming

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The husband of a CIA agent whose
identity was revealed amid debate over the Iraq war accused the
White House on Thursday of being involved in a giant “cover-up”
in the scandal and said President Bush should fire his top aide
Karl Rove.

Federal investigators are looking into who leaked the
identity of covert CIA agent Valerie Plame, whose name appeared
in a newspaper column in July 2003, and Rove has emerged as a
source for at least one media report on the case.

“What this thing has been for the past two years has been a
cover-up, a cover-up of the … web of lies that underpin the
justification for going to war in Iraq,” said Plame’s husband,
Joseph Wilson, a former career foreign-service officer who held
diplomatic posts in the first Bush administration and served in
the Clinton White House.

“And to a certain extent, this cover-up is becoming
unraveled. That’s why you see the White House stonewalling,”
Wilson said in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show.

Wilson has said repeatedly the leak was aimed at
discrediting him for criticizing Bush’s Iraq policy in 2003,
after a CIA-funded trip in 2002 to investigate whether Niger
helped supply nuclear materials to Baghdad.

Rove, the White House deputy chief of staff, has been named
by a Time magazine reporter as a source who identified the
agent.

ROVE SAYS DID NOTHING WRONG

Rove’s lawyer said on Wednesday his client “has been
repeatedly assured he is not a target” of the special
prosecutor investigating the case and that he had done nothing
wrong.

Bush said on Wednesday he would withhold judgment for now
and told reporters he had ordered his staff to cooperate with
investigators. He has previously said he would fire the leaker.

A growing number of Democrats have called for Rove to
resign. Wilson, who briefly served as an adviser to the
campaign of Bush’s 2004 presidential opponent, Sen. John Kerry,
said he thought the president should fire his adviser.

“The president really should stand up and prove to the
American people that his word is his bond and fire Karl Rove,”
said Wilson.

Wilson scoffed at the notion that Rove did not use his
wife’s name or that he did not realize she was an undercover
agent.

“My wife’s name is Wilson, it is Mrs. Joseph Wilson, it is
Valerie Wilson. He named her, he identified her. That argument
I don’t believe passes the smell test,” said Wilson.

“What I do know is that Mr. Rove was talking to the press
and saying things like, my wife is ‘fair game.’ That is an
outrage. It is an abuse of power,” Wilson added.

Plame returned to the CIA this month after a year’s absence
and Wilson said his family had not enjoyed the attention
brought by the case. The couple have 5-year-old twins.

The case led to the jailing last week of New York Times
reporter Judith Miller who refused to testify about sources she
spoke to on the story.

Time reporter Matt Cooper avoided the same fate after Rove
waived their agreement to keep his comments confidential.
Cooper testified before the investigating grand jury on
Wednesday.