Bush ‘must apologise’ over CIA leak case

SENATE Democratic leader Harry Reid yesterday said US President George W Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney should apologise for the actions of their aides in the CIA leak case.

The Nevada senator also said that Mr Bush should pledge not to pardon any aides convicted as a result of the investigation into the disclosure of CIA officer Valerie Plame’s identity.

“There has not been an apology to the American people for this obvious problem in the White House,” Mr Reid said. He said Mr Bush and Mr Cheney “should come clean with the American public”.

Mr Cheney’s chief of staff, Lewis “Scooter” Libby, resigned on Friday after he was indicted on five charges relating to statements he made to the FBI and a grand jury investigating the Plame leak.

Mr Reid also said that Karl Rove, the president’s closest political adviser, should step down.

Mr Rove has not been charged with a crime and the closest the indictment comes to him is its discussion of an unnamed senior White House official who talked to columnist Robert Novak about Ms Plame and discussed the matter with Mr Libby.

The prosecutor in the CIA leak case has said his investigation is “not quite done,” but declined comment on Mr Rove during a news conference on Friday.

Mr Bush promised to fire anyone on his staff responsible for such a leak. He later stepped back, saying just that he would remove aides who committed crimes.

Mr Bush and Mr Cheney gave glowing endorsements and expressed no criticism of Mr Libby after the senior White House adviser was indicted, resigned and lost his security clearance.