By TERENCE HUNT,
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday sought to put to rest the controversy over his decision to spare a top former White House official from going to jail, saying it was time to move on. He also called on the nation and skeptical lawmakers to stand with him on Iraq, despite a new report showing only mixed progress.

“There’s war fatigue in America. It’s affecting our psychology. I understand that. It’s an ugly war,” Bush said.

The president also said that, while al-Qaida remains a threat to the United States, it has been hurt by his war on terrorism and is “weaker today than they would have been” otherwise. He spoke as a new U.S. threat assessment found that al Qaida had rebuilt its capability to mount attacks to levels not seen since 2001.

At a news conference lasting over an hour that was dominated by questions on Iraq, Bush was asked about his decision ten days ago to commute the 30-month prison sentence of I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby, the former chief of staff to Vice President Dick Cheney.

Libby was convicted of lying and obstruction of justice in the investigation of the outing of an undercover CIA official, Valerie Plame, whose husband Joseph Wilson was a vocal anti-war critic.

Bush acknowledged publicly for the first time that someone in his administration leaked her name to the news media. “And, you know, I’ve often thought about what would have happened had that person come forth and said, `I did it.’ Would we have had this, you know, endless hours of investigation and a lot of money being spent on this matter?”

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