CBS/AP/ February 11, 2009, 7:16 PM

Bush Vows To Fire Leak Criminals

In this Wednesday, May 16, 2012 photo, Afghan National Army soldiers train with their M16 rifle at a firing range at the 203 Thunder Corps base in Gardez, Paktia province, Afghanistan. A disturbingly high number of so-called "green-on-blue" attacks, a U.S. military term for Afghan soldiers killing their NATO counterparts, has resulted in 35 deaths in 2011 and 22 so far in mid 2012. Col. Asif Khan Saburi, in charge of training army recruits in five provinces, said the increase in attacks prompted a ban on international soldiers being at firing ranges. In May 2011, a U.S. Army team led by a behavioral scientist released a 70-page survey that revealed both Afghans and American soldiers hold disturbingly negative perceptions of the other. (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus) / Anja Niedringhaus

President Bush said Monday that if anyone on his staff committed a crime in the CIA leak case, that person will "no longer work in my administration."

At the same time, Mr. Bush yet again sidestepped a question on the role of his top political adviser, Karl Rove, in the matter.

"We have a serious ongoing investigation here and it's being played out in the press," Mr. Bush said at an East Room news conference with the visiting prime minister of India.

Mr. Bush's latest comments marked a change of language and emphasis from his past assertions that anyone involved in leaking the name of agent Valerie Plame would be fired.

Mr. Bush said in June 2004 that he would fire anyone in his administration shown to have leaked information that exposed the identity of Plame, the wife of former Ambassador Joseph Wilson, an outspoken critic of the president's Iraq policy.

On Monday, however, he added the qualifier that it would have to be shown that a crime was committed. Not all such disclosures necessarily rise to the level of crime, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.

Mr. Bush spoke a day after Time magazine's Matthew Cooper said that a 2003 phone call with Rove was the first he heard about the wife of Bush administration critic Joseph Wilson apparently working for the CIA.

A tempest has swirled around the leak of the CIA agent's name, apparently by Bush administration officials, in July 2003.

Some Democrats have called for Rove, whose title is deputy chief of staff, to be fired. They have suggested that he violated a 1982 federal law that prohibits the deliberate exposure of the name of a CIA agent.

"It's best people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions. I don't know all the facts. I want to know all the facts," Mr. Bush said. "I would like this to end as quickly as possible. If someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration."

Cooper also revealed over the weekend that Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff Lewis "Scooter" Libby was another of his sources for the Plame story.

Until it refused to issue more denials last week, the White House had insisted for nearly two years that Libby and Rove had no connection to the leak of Plame's identity.

On Sunday, Bush administration spokesman David Almacy declined to comment about Libby, citing the independent counsel's ongoing investigation.

Cooper said the 2003 phone call with Rove was the first time he had heard anything about Wilson's wife.

He said he had a subsequent conversation about Wilson and his wife with Libby.

According to Cooper, "Libby replied, 'Yeah, I've heard that too' or words to that effect" when Cooper asked if Libby had heard anything about Wilson's wife sending her husband to the African nation of Niger to investigate the possible sale of uranium to Iraq for nuclear weapons.