Washington - Presidential confidant Karl
Rove should be fired for his role in the CIA leak, the husband of
the agent whose cover was exposed told NBC's "Today" show
on Monday.
"I think the president should fire
him... these are firing offenses," Joe Wilson, a retired career
U.S. diplomat, said of Rove.
The two-year-old investigation into who
leaked Valerie Plame's identity last Friday led to the indictment of
Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff, Lewis Libby, on
obstruction of justice and perjury charges. Libby faces a trial and
up to 30 years in prison.
Wilson said Rove also had a role since
Time magazine reporter Matt Cooper has said it was Rove who told him
about Plame.
Rove is a "party to the compromise
of national security of this country," Wilson alleged. Rove was
not indicted Friday but was told that he remains under
investigation.
Wilson also welcomed Libby's indictment,
saying it showed that "no man is above the law" in the
United States.
Wilson contends that his wife's identity
was deliberately revealed by the Bush administration to get back at
him for publicly challenging U.S. prewar intelligence on Iraq.
Wilson added that "we have received
threats" over their allegations and have had to change their
phone listing as a result.
'60 Minutes' interview In an interview
aired Sunday on CBS' "60 Minutes," Wilson said that Plame,
42, was in shock when she saw her name and that of her fictitious
employer published in a syndicated column by Robert Novak.
"She felt like she'd been hit in the
stomach. It took her breath away," Wilson said.
"When he published her name - it was
very easy to unravel everything about her, her entire cover,"
Wilson said. "You live your cover."
Asked whether she realized then that her
career as a CIA undercover agent was over, Wilson said:
"Absolutely. Sure. There was no doubt about it in her mind. And
she wondered for what."
The CIA declined to comment, citing the
ongoing legal process.
Before the exposure, Plame's identity had
been a well kept secret. Friends and even relatives were kept in the
dark about her work, Wilson told "60 Minutes."
"The day that Mr. Novak's article
appeared, my sister-in-law turned to my brother and said, 'Do you
think Joe knew?' So, not even my brother or my sister-in-law or any
of my immediate family knew," Wilson said.
Ex-spy's perspective Former CIA agent Jim
Marcinkowski, now a city attorney in Royal Oak, Mich., told "60
Minutes" it was "outrageous" that Plame had been
exposed.
"CIA people don't like cameras. We
don't like publicity. We operate in the background as much as
possible. So she's in a very, very uncomfortable spot," said
Marcinkowski, who trained with Plame at the CIA as a new recruit.
"Her career has been ended,"
Marcinkowski said when asked about the damage to Plame, who is the
mother of 5-year-old twins.
Wilson said his wife quickly recovered
after the initial shock of having her identity compromised "and
started making lists of what she had to do to ensure that her
assets, her projects, her programs and her operations were
protected."
He said there had been some
"specific threats" and that he and his wife had discussed
security with various agencies, but he could not say anything
further.
The Washington Post reported that Plame,
the daughter of an Air Force colonel and a teacher, was recruited by
the CIA at the age of 22, shortly after graduating from Pennsylvania
State University.
She was trained at a CIA facility simply
known as "The Farm" near Williamsburg, Va., and was in the
1985-86 class of CIA officers.
The newspaper quoted Larry Johnson, a
former CIA analyst and acquaintance of Plame's who was in her
officer training class, as saying: "For all intents and
purposes out at the CIA, she's like a leper ... she's
radioactive."
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