Scott Reed's Statement On Clinton's Indonesian Contributions

Dole/Kemp '96 Campaign Manager Scott Reed released the following statement today:

Yesterday on NBC's "Meet the Press" Vice President Al Gore said: "I will say that I think that the ethical standards established in this White House have been the highest in the history of the White House." (NBC's "Meet the Press," 10/13/96)

Unfortunately, your administration's potentially criminal actions in squeezing money out of the Indonesian Lippo conglomerate (and giving new meaning to the term 'Lippo suction') make a mockery of that statement. If your administration has established the 'highest' ethical standards in history....

1. Why have you used U.S. foreign policy in Indonesia as a fundraising tool to help secure illegal campaign contributions from foreigners?

"With Mr. Clinton's election to the presidency in 1992, the (Indonesian billionaire) Riadys and their business associates have become more politically active, from soliciting campaign contributions to influencing trade policy and conducting quiet diplomacy.... Last month, in response to questions from the Los Angeles Times, the Democratic Party returned an unlawful $250,000 contribution that had been solicited from a South Korean company by the former American head of the Riadys' business operations, John Huang." (New York Times, 10/10/96)

2. Did you turn a blind eye to human rights violations in East Timor in exchange for hundreds of thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions from foreign nationals?

"Out of the limelight, Mr. Riady has become a player in Asian-American relations, holding discussions with Mr. Clinton about United States relations with China and Indonesia, American and Asian officials say. The officials also say he has acted as a back-channel between the State Department and President Suharto of Indonesia on East Timor, a former Portuguese colony that Indonesia now controls and where human rights questions have been raised." (New York Times, 10/10/96)

3. Didn't it raise suspicions that a gardener with a green card -- a foreign national with ties to the brutal Indonesian dictatorship -- donated $425,000 to the Democratic National Committee's soft-money operation?

"The Knight Ridder news service reported that one of the largest contributions this year, $425,000, came from Arief Wiriandinata, an Indonesian who lived briefly in Virginia and whose father-in-law was a senior executive who worked for the Riadys." (New York Times, 10/10/96)

"Arief Wiriandinata is a landscape architect, and the couple lived in a modest townhouse in Virginia." (Washington Post, 10/12/96)

4. How do you justify selling top-level White House access to wealthy foreign nationals from military dictatorships like Indonesia?

"Over time, (Indonesian billionaire Mochtar) Riady became pals with the future president. He was an invited guest at Clinton's inauguration and his son, James, got a plum seat at the table a key economic summit convened after Clinton's election. Riady and his clan showed their thanks the old-fashioned way -- they filled Clinton's campaign coffers." (New York Post, 10/14/96)

5. Was it a lapse in your CIA briefing or a lapse of ethics that allowed you to meet with Indonesian billionaire Mochtar Riady, a foreign national with close ties to the military junta that has slaughtered hundreds of thousands in East Timor?

"Clinton met with Riady and Huang when he visited Indonesia in November 1994, Clinton aides acknowledged this week." (New York Post, 10/14/96)

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