Clinton, in Australia, Says Donation Probe Will Fizzle

President Clinton said today that he thinks his administration should answer questions about contributions from wealthy Asians but compared his plight to the Atlanta security guard falsely accused in the Olympic bombing.

“I think we should answer whatever questions are asked. I’ve told everybody else to do the same thing,” Clinton said at a news conference kicking off his Asia trip. The president has denied that his administration’s foreign policies were affected by contributions from people associated with an Indonesian banking conglomerate.

“One of the things I would urge you to do, remembering what happened to Mr. Jewell in Atlanta, remembering what has happened to so many of the accusations over the last four years that have been made against me that turned out to be totally baseless, I just think that we ought to make sure we’ve got, you know, we ought to just get the facts out.”

Last month, the FBI cleared Richard Jewell as a suspect in the bombing after months of his defending himself against suspicions and little evidence.

Clinton’s comments came amid a fresh report that several top U.S. officials visited for lunch at the Indonesian home of Lippo Group owner Mochtar Riady in February 1994, shortly after one of the banking conglomerate’s executives was given a top-secret clearance and designated for a government job.

A month after the luncheon meeting, the executive, Lippo’s head of U.S. operations John Huang, and his wife donated $20,000 to the Democratic Party.

Clinton made his remarks during a joint news conference with Australian Prime Minister John Howard before the president was to address a joint session of Parliament.

Canberra, the capital city, was one of the president’s first stops on a 12-day tour of Australia, the Philippines and Thailand.

On other topics, Clinton:

* Said the recent arrest of a veteran CIA officer was the result of improved coordination he had ordered between the FBI and CIA in the wake of the Aldrich Ames spy scandal. He also said Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott met with Russian officials and demanded an explanation, but he declined to go into details about the U.S. complaint to Moscow.

* Said thousands of U.S. Marines will take part in military exercises with Australians in the northern part of Australia next year.

* Said he and Howard talked frankly about trade issues, including Australia’s frustrations with world trade rules that allow governments to subsidize food products, a large Australian export. Both men agreed that the root of the problem was with the European Union.