Wilson To Bush: Fire Rove
Former Ambassador Joseph Wilson called on President Bush on Thursday to fire top aide Karl Rove for discussing Wilson's wife's role as a CIA officer with reporters.
"Now we know who was involved in the leak. I think it's now a question of character for the president. If he is in fact a man of his word he needs to do what he said he'd do and fire Mr. Rove," said Wilson in an interview with CBS Radio News Correspondent Peter Maer.
For more of CBS News correspondent Peter Maer's interview with Joseph Wilson, click here.
said Wednesday that he would not discuss the matter further until a criminal investigation is finished. Last year, he said he would fire anyone found to have leaked Plame's name.
"This is a serious investigation," the president told reporters after a Cabinet meeting, where Rove sat just behind him. "And it is very important for people not to prejudge the investigation based on media reports."
Wilson dismissed arguments by Rove's defenders that Rove did nothing wrong since he never mentioned Valerie Plame by name during conversations with reporters.
"I find it a bit flimsy on the face of it," Wilson said, "since when he says Wilson's wife, Valerie is in fact Mrs. Wilson. ... She is known and has been since we got married as Valerie Wilson. When you say Wilson's wife you're saying Mrs. Wilson."
Wilson says the leak of his wife's name was an attempt by the administration to discredit him after he challenged its assertion that Iraq's Saddam Hussein was seeking to obtain from Niger material to make nuclear weapons.
"I think this is an attempt on the part of the White House to cover up the web of lies that underpin the justification for going to war in Iraq in the first place," he told Maer.
Asked what he'd like to say to Rove, Wilson said, "Nothing you could say on the air without getting in trouble with the FCC."