Motivation could be a number of things. I think they are pursuing it because they want to see if they can do it. Scientists often do things that either don't have any real value or even a negative value all in the name of science. Because science itself is generally amoral. They don't set out to do evil, necessarily (though some times they do -- ie, weapons of mass destruction and biological warfare), but they think that discovering scientific knowledge justifies whatever means they have to use to obtain it. They have experimented on people without their knowledge on many, many occasions -- so it wouldn't surprise me that they would attempt to clone just to figure out how to do it. They don't think they need to worry about how something will be used. That is for other people to work out after they've achieved it.
At the moment, cloning probably only offers the benefit of spare body parts. There was even a movie about that (The Island). There is always the possibility that they are looking to breed a class of people for a certain function. Add gene splicing and cloning together, you might be able to breed a class of people who are temperamentally born to be happy as a menial worker. Or be an elite soldier who doesn't feel fear in the face of danger. Although, to be honest, AI is probably a better bet for that than clones.
I have no doubt at all that they are working on it. And no doubt that the uber wealthy would love the idea of raising up a literal mini-me -- even if that is the only benefit. I just don't know if they have already achieved that or if they are still light years away from making it a reality. But, it would be naive to think that there isn't a military installation somewhere with a lab that is working on that at this very moment. And not just the US -- China, Russia and others are probably all pursuing it because they think everyone else is doing it.
