US President George W. Bush on Thursday acknowledged for the first time that "perhaps" one of his aides unmasked a covert CIA agent, but expressed no regrets and said it was time to "move on."
Bush characterized the probe into who leaked the name of undercover operative Valerie Plame to the media as an unnecessary burden for the White House as he discussed his decision to spare a former top adviser convicted of obstructing the investigation from serving any prison time.
"The Scooter Libby decision was, I thought, a fair and balanced decision," he said nearly two weeks after using his powers of clemency on behalf of Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff.
"I haven't spent a lot of time talking about the testimony that people throughout my administration were forced to give as a result of the special prosecutor," said Bush, who had mostly refused to comment about the case.
The president, who had vowed to fire anyone who leaked Plame's identity to the media and later said that any lawbreakers would be "taken care of," suggested without naming names that a quick confession might have been best.
"I'm aware of the fact that perhaps somebody in the administration did disclose the name of that person, and I've often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, 'I did it,'" he said.
"Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter? But it's been a tough issue for a lot of people in the White House, and it's run its course and now we're going to move on," he said.
It was unclear whether Bush was referring to Libby, senior White House political strategist Karl Rove, or former press secretary Ari Fleischer, all of whom discussed Plame with reporters.
But the comment seemed directed at former deputy secretary of state Richard Armitage, who with Rove was a source of the July 2003 newspaper column that named Plame and her CIA job, touching off the investigation.
Libby was convicted in March of perjury and obstruction of justice in the case. Ten days ago, Bush commuted Libby's sentence, letting stand a fine and probation time but scrapping a 30-month prison term.
Bush critics claim Libby was part of a White House effort to punish Plame's husband, former US ambassador Joseph Wilson, whom the CIA sent to Niger in February 2002 to investigate claims Saddam Hussein tried to buy uranium for nuclear bombs.
Wilson later criticized the administration's rationale for the Iraq war, and a probe was launched into whether top Bush aides deliberately blew Plame's cover as revenge.
