[xico]

Policy Met Politics in Cuba Rules
Fla. Anti-Castro Forces Helped Shape Laws

By Peter Slevin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 24, 2004; Page A01

Early last year, Otto Reich shopped a new project to his boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. A Havana-born hard-liner with a habit of picking verbal fights with Cuban President Fidel Castro, Reich believed the United States was unprepared for Castro's fall and needed a transition strategy.

Rice liked the idea. The White House was overwhelmed with preparations for invading Iraq, so she told her new special envoy for Latin America to proceed and promised to pay closer attention after the war. Reich and a close-knit team of State Department political appointees felt they had, at last, an insider's chance to undo Castro.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has long courted Cuban American voters in the state, played a key role in the tightening of restrictions.

As Reich's initiative gathered steam, word kept reaching the White House that Cuban Americans in Miami felt that President Bush had broken his promises to challenge Castro more sharply. Worse, Republican political figures warned that Cuban Americans crucial to Bush's 537-vote margin in Florida in 2000 might stay home in 2004.

It was a matter, state Rep. David Rivera said, of "telling the White House we need some help down here. We need something to motivate people."

This confluence of policymaking and politics led to the tightest restrictions on Cuban Americans' interactions with the island in decades: a limit of one visit every three years, a sharp reduction in how much they can spend there and new curbs on the goods they can send. Cuba policy has historically been driven by domestic politics, but this episode -- in accounts given by participants and close observers in Miami and Washington -- offers an exceptional glimpse into how the two interact.

The policy, imposed this summer, prompted a revolt in Congress and angered some of the Cuban Americans it was intended to please; it also produced enough animosity, Democrats hope, to help throw Florida to Sen. John F. Kerry (Mass.).

Officials said critical political input came from the president's brother Jeb Bush, who is Florida's governor and an avid cultivator of the state's Cuban American population.

State Department officials confirmed that, in a Congress severely divided on how to produce democracy in Cuba, they reached out only to the three Cuban American Republican representatives from South Florida -- all strong proponents of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.

Assistant Secretary of State Roger F. Noriega, who managed the policy review, said he and his aides had numerous conversations with members of the White House political staff under Karl Rove, Bush's chief political adviser and a fierce supporter of travel limits. Politics played a "natural" role in shaping the strategy, Noriega said.

"Politics intersect with the policy. In a democracy, it always should," he said. The role of foreign policy experts at the National Security Council, said one participant, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, was "as great as, or greater than, the politics shop."

In fact, the opinions of the most hard-line administration figures and some members of the White House political staff dovetailed significantly, even if their ambitions for the policy were different: One was focused on Bush's reelection, the other on Castro's demise.

Defenders of the policy said discussions inside the administration were intense and final decisions were made by Bush. They describe him as convinced that the strategy would wound Castro and energize more voters than it alienated.

Former diplomat Wayne Smith, an opponent of sanctions, said: "I've been involved in U.S.-Cuba policy since 1958. This is the stupidest policy I've ever seen, bar none."

The Plan

The story begins with Reich, a former lobbyist and diplomat. Bush named him assistant secretary of state for Latin America in 2001 after Jeb Bush recommended him and Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) -- a Cuban American hard-liner whose aunt was married to Castro -- appealed to Rove.


The Senate never confirmed him. Democrats blasted Reich as a divisive, one-issue figure, and the White House found no enthusiasm among moderate Republicans for a fight. When Reich's recess appointment expired, he moved to the NSC under Rice. With him, he carried his idea for developing a transition plan for Cuba.

By October 2003, Reich's proposal had taken shape as the President's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Cuban-born Housing Secretary Mel R. Martinez as co-chairmen. The commission would "plan for Cuba's transition from Stalinist rule to a free and open society, to identify ways to hasten the arrival of that day," Bush said in the Rose Garden.

Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has long courted Cuban American voters in the state, played a key role in the tightening of restrictions.

The administration was not in good favor at the time with an important segment of the Cuban American community, according to political figures and analysts interviewed in Miami and Washington. Strongly anti-Castro activists believed that Bush had not delivered on promises to revise Clinton administration policy and crack down on Castro.

"There were tremendous expectations that something would happen in Cuba. Here was someone who was rough and tough," said Dennis K. Hays, former head of the State Department's Cuba desk. Yet nearly three years into Bush's term, Hays said, the disillusionment was powerful.

The last straw for some Bush supporters was the July 2003 decision to repatriate a dozen Cubans intercepted after hijacking a Cuban government boat. The State Department negotiated a promise from Cuba to impose 10-year prison terms instead of executing them.

Calling the negotiations "offensive and misguided," 13 Republican Florida legislators sent a letter to Bush -- with copies to Rove and Republican National Committee Chairman Ed Gillespie -- describing "great disappointment and outrage" over the lack of a comprehensive Cuba policy.

"We fear," they wrote, "the historic and intense support from Cuban American voters for Republican federal candidates, including yourself, will be jeopardized."

Bush's commission, composed solely of government officials, first met in December. Martinez soon resigned to run for the U.S. Senate in Florida, leaving Powell in charge. Given a deadline to file a report in six months -- and barely six months before the November elections -- the authors worked fast.

Powell assigned Noriega to coordinate the effort. To run the crucial working group that would design plans to destabilize Castro, Noriega drafted his deputy, Daniel Fisk. Fisk was a fellow staff member to former senator Jesse Helms (R-N.C.), an ardent Castro opponent. The report's editor was Jose Cardenas, who worked for the Cuban American National Foundation when it dominated U.S. policy.

The staff consulted principally with individuals and groups whose hard-line opinions were well advertised. When others later objected, one U.S. official argued that "trying to wade through all the different people who had an interest in Cuba was going to be very complicated and was not necessarily going to make the report any better."

No issues were more sharply argued than the rules for remittances and travel to the island. The theory behind 40 years of U.S. sanctions is that economic hardship will squeeze Castro from power, or at least force change. But Reich, Noriega, Helms and others have long argued that prevailing restrictions were not strong enough to punish a government that profits enormously from travel dollars and money shipped to Cubans by relatives and friends abroad.

The Rules

As the president's commission did its work, some of Bush's most vocal supporters in Miami called for a nonnegotiable end to trips to Cuba. Others said exiles should not be permitted to return to the island until they had received U.S. citizenship. At the time, Cuban Americans were officially restricted to one trip per year, but exceptions were routine.

Within the commission, one group argued that remittances -- then limited to $100 a month -- should be eliminated. Someone else proposed a 90-day moratorium. Among those seeking a firm line were Noriega and Diaz-Balart, who noted in an interview, "I've been on the record for cutting as much of the flow of currency to the regime as possible."

Sources said members of the White House political staff pressed the mid-level State Department officials to push ever harder on Castro -- harder than even the veteran anti-Castro players had intended. They found themselves pushing back as they drafted their final recommendations.

© For a final review by Powell, Rice and other Cabinet-level appointees on the presidential commission, Noriega's team produced a strongly worded document. It called for a 50 percent reduction in remittances and a cut in travel by Cuban Americans to once every three years, with no exceptions for illness or death in the family.

The travel rule would be adopted and approved by Bush, along with a cut from $164 to $50 in the amount Cuban Americans visiting relatives could spend per day. Also adopted was a prohibition on sending gift packages with such items as soap, deodorant, seeds and clothing.



Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has long courted Cuban American voters in the state, played a key role in the tightening of restrictions.


The remittance decision proved the most difficult, participants said, and it fell to Bush.

As the pressure built, Reich and human rights activist Frank Calzon, one of Washington's most outspoken Castro opponents, urged decision makers not to go too far. Calzon's voice carried weight because no one could accuse him of being soft on Castro.

Powell and Rice asked whether a cut in remittances would do more harm than good to Cubans and to U.S. policy.

Bush decided in a session in the White House's Roosevelt Room that cutting the remittances would risk an accusation that he was needlessly preventing money from reaching Cuban families. When the policy was released May 6, the administration declared that only immediate relatives could receive money but the amounts would stay the same.

"There was a clash. The guy who made the final decision on remittances was George W. Bush. The president said, 'No, I'm not going to hurt abuelita. That's not the purpose of this,' " said someone who was present, quoting Bush as using the Spanish diminutive for "grandmother."

When the policy was announced, the outcry from angry Cuban Americans registered loudest. Diaz-Balart and others dismissed the complainers as an insignificant minority, but the opposition made headlines.

"I get very offended with someone telling me how to engage with my family," said Ana Karim, 32, a Cuban American pastor in Richmond. "I don't want to go illegally, but if I need to go see my family because my uncle's not doing well or somebody's dying, I'll figure out a way to get there."

Kerry made a gamble of his own after seeing that the rules governing family visits and remittances had gone so far. Although candidates typically race to see who can talk the toughest, he staked out a more liberal position.

In a community that voted more than 4 to 1 for Bush in 2000, Democrats argued that Cuban American families and their Cuban relatives were being unfairly penalized. Vowing to organize a new voting bloc, leaders said enough Republican voters might stay home to tip the Florida race to Kerry.

Confusion defined the implementation of the regulations, which were hurried into place June 30 without the usual comment period. It quickly became clear that the administration had not considered all ramifications.

Countless Americans traveling in Cuba discovered they had lost permission to be there, while charter companies had lost permission to retrieve them. The U.S. administration granted a 30-day reprieve.

Cuban Americans accustomed to sending gift packages objected after being told they could no longer ship certain goods. The State Department said it would relax the rules to allow the shipment of toiletries -- only to reverse course again.

Hispanic and black representatives persuaded Powell to exempt from the new rules a program in Cuba for U.S. medical students. In a rebuke to Bush, the House voted 221 to 194 to block the administration from enforcing the restrictions on gift packages.

Officials now say all the regulations will be reviewed after a comment period that ended Aug. 16.

Reich, the man who started it all, was pleased that the U.S. government finally had a comprehensive strategy. So were Noriega and Fisk. All three told others that they anticipated the reaction. The benefits of the policy, they said, would justify the short-term pain.

Rivera, the Florida legislator, was also pleased, even if the policy was not as rigorous as he had wanted. "It's no coincidence," he said, "that the three major changes in Cuba policy came in election years."

[Al-Firdaus]

Cuba Breaks Ties with Panama Over Bomb Pardon
By:Anthony Boadle and Elida Moreno on:27.08.2004 [05:30 ] (81 reads)

HAVANA/PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - Cuba cut diplomatic ties with Panama on Thursday after its outgoing leader pardoned four Cuban exiles who plotted to kill President Fidel Castro in 2000. Panama's conservative President Mireya Moscoso, who leaves office next week, said she freed the Cubans for humanitarian reasons. Three of the plotters were Cuban-born U.S. citizens and on their release they flew directly to a small airport in Miami, where they were met by their families.

The Cuban government called Moscoso an "accomplice and protector of terrorism" and said in a statement that diplomatic relations with Panama were broken off indefinitely. Havana described the pardon as "an affront to the victims of terrorism and their families" and said history would hold Moscoso responsible for "new crimes these abominable assassins commit in the future." The pardoned men were among six sentenced in April for their part in a failed attempt to bomb a University of Panama auditorium where Castro was due to speak during a summit of Iberian and Latin American leaders.

Among those freed was prominent anti-Castro activist Luis Posada, who escaped in the 1980s from a Venezuelan jail where he faced charges of planning the 1976 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people. Posada is not a U.S. citizen so he did not travel to Miami, and it was unclear where he was. Moscoso said she freed the four because they were convicted for relatively minor crimes rather than attempted murder and denied suggestions that the United States had pushed her into it. "I knew that if these men stayed here, they would be extradited to Cuba and Venezuela and there they were surely going to kill them," she told a news conference.

A Panamanian court in April sentenced the exiles to prison terms of seven and eight years on charges of endangering public safety and falsifying documents. It ruled there was not enough evidence to try them on charges of attempted murder. Moscoso said she received anonymous death threats after issuing the pardons. "There are threats against my life," she told reporters. "They have been calling to say they're going to kill me, but I'm not scared."

U.S. DENIES INVOLVEMENT LIE ALERT!

The State Department denied having persuaded Panama to grant the pardon. "This was a decision made by the government of Panama. We never lobbied the Panamanian government to pardon anyone involved in this case," spokesman Adam Ereli told reporters in the U.S. capital. Washington's decades-old dispute with Cuba has been fanned by President Bush 's tough new restrictions on traveling or sending family remittances to the island. Moscoso has enjoyed close relations with the Bush administration.

Cuba wanted the men extradited and Venezuela also sought Posada. He was never convicted of the Cuban airliner bombing but was arrested in Venezuela and denied bail for nine years until he escaped from prison disguised as a priest in 1985. The break with Panama was Cuba's latest diplomatic rift with a Latin American neighbor. Peru and Mexico withdrew their ambassadors from Havana in May after Castro sharply criticized their support for a U.N. censure of Cuba's rights record. The Mexican envoy returned to the island in July.

Panama's President-elect Martin Torrijos said he disagreed with the pardon and pledged to work to repair relations with Cuba once he takes office on Wednesday.

(Additional reporting by Frances Kerry in Miami)

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...cuba_panama_dc

[DNeurococo]

Think about U.S. aid to the terrorist Posada the next time that some U.S. government official pontificates about fighting terrorism.

[Fidelista]

The U.S has supported and carried out terrorist attacks against Cuba for decades. In the case of the C.I A..... they admit it.
Americans prefer to think we don't support or commit terrorist acts, so.....there will never be wide spread interest in this post, or subject.
And , they are not capitalists so they deserve some terror, and maybe invasion?. Sad story.

[linskyjack]

I have never understood how we can have fairly normal relations with China, but continue our nyet policy with Cuba. I guess its all about votes---Both Republicans and Democrats vie for the Cuban expatriate vote.

[AcaCandy]

Time to turn the wheel


In the eastern religions, they talk of karma. All of the philosophies and religions that have withstood the test of time come to a similar conclusion. Evil exists in this world, and tyranny and corruption exist in public life, but even when change is delayed for more than a lifespan, tables turn, a day of reckoning comes and those who were once high and mighty in their arrogance are laid low. In one of the many passages in which the Bible expounds on this concept, it is written:

“If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for he that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.”

And so Panama is about to be relieved of the burden that Mireya Moscoso has placed upon us. On her way out she and her followers have helped themselves to yet more of the public trust and one of the first great tests of the incoming Torrijos administration will be whether and to what extent it allows the Mireyistas to keep what they have taken.

This was not Panama’s first kleptocracy, and we have seen worse tyranny. But the nation is ready for change, and not merely a new cast of characters doing the same old things.

http://www.thepanamanews.com/pn/v_10...frontpage.html

[AcaCandy]

Venezuela envoy to leave Panama
Venezuela has withdrawn its ambassador to Panama, a day after Cuba broke off diplomatic relations with Panama over a pardon for four Cuban exiles.
The men had been accused of attempting to assassinate Cuban President Fidel Castro four years ago.

Venezuelan Ambassador Flavio Granados said he was being withdrawn "because of the offensive statements" made by Panama's President Mireya Moscoso.

She pardoned the four a few days before leaving office at the end of August.


One of the four Cubans is wanted in Venezuela on charges relating to the hijacking of a passenger plane in 1976.

Ms Moscoso said had pardoned them for "humanitarian reasons", because "if they stay (in Panama), they might be extradited to Venezuela or Cuba, where I am sure they would have killed them".

Mr Granados said he and his government "categorically reject and repudiate those statements", adding that Venezuela did not have the death penalty.

However, he added that the two countries would maintain diplomatic relations.

"With the arrival of the new government in Panama, we are sure our ambassador will return there," said Venezuelan Deputy Foreign Minister Arevalo Mendez.

The incoming Panamanian leader, Martin Torrijos, has publicly opposed the pardons. He takes office next Wednesday.

Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez had been due to attend his inauguration, but has now said he will no longer be coming.

Summit plot

The four men - all Cuban emigres - were convicted and jailed in April for threatening public security and falsifying documents.


Luis Posada Carriles, Gaspar Jimenez, Guillermo Novo and Pedro Remon were on a list of presidential pardons announced by Ms Moscoso.
At a summit in Panama in November 2000, Mr Castro alleged there was a plot to kill him.

Explosives were found in a case, but the anti-Castro activists denied plotting to kill the Cuban leader.

The defendants said they were in Panama to help a Cuban general who had supposedly planned to seek political asylum.

Mr Posada Carriles is a former CIA operative who has long sought the overthrow of Fidel Castro.

In 1985, he escaped from a Venezuelan prison whilst awaiting trial for his alleged involvement in a 1976 bombing of a Cuban passenger plane, which killed 73 people.

The four men arrived in Honduras on Thursday, and Mr Jimenez, Mr Novo and Mr Remon have already continued to Miami.


Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/h...as/3607146.stm

Published: 2004/08/28 03:43:29 GMT

© BBC MMIV

[xico]

When Lt. Calley was charged with the My Lai massacre, he said, "Nobody had ever told him that communists were human beings." (He might have said "people" instead of "human beings.") The "Bomber of Hanoi," Nixon, pardoned him , one mass murderer pardoning another mass murderer! Joy to the world!

Tell me the US didn't put pressure on Moscoso--or reward Moscoso--for the favor of releasing these brigands of oppression. Cuba, Chile, Argentina, Panama, Guatamala, most of Africa, and all of South America. What shameless monsters lurk about the world in our name!

I saw a documentary where Fidel was in the center on a platform with 100,000 to 500,000 people in Havana, during which 3 white doves kept trying to sit on his shoulders, and LOL he kept trying to shoo them away, but they were marking him as the savior of Cuba--and that's why, for me, the CIA has never been able to murder him. There are other forces beyond what the eye can see who protect him. Otherwise Uncle Sam's banditos would have gotten him long ago.

You know, the Gov changed the name of the War Department to the Defense Department. Doesn't sound so menacing. What they call "intelligence" is nothing less than spying, thus the CIA is really the Central Spy Agency--but heaven forbid we should call it that!
The FBI is really the National Police Department; but FBI "sounds" so much better, doesn't it? Not quite as menacing! And now "terrorists" who work to install oppression are "patriots!"

Viva Fidel!

[Fidelista]

Ahhh! another fidelista lurking about!.
I think it should made clear that almost all Cubans would love >>>>>
more politcal freedom
more freedom of press
more trade
more travel
more money!
However, the price may be very high,too high, a loss of independence.
That is what has prevented the U.S. policy from working for over 40 yrs---no mystery there.
Few Cubans want to return to the 'good old days" of Mr Batista and his band of crooks. Those that do are found on rafts or living in S.Florida.
Xico, you are correct in another thing, If Mr Castro were a hated tyrant---he would have killed a long time ago. Many people misunderstand that---the majority of Cubans support Mr Castro and always have.
During the planning of the Mercenary invasion of Cuba,{Bay of pigs} the U.S govt misunderstood this completely. They were counting on an up-rising.
The up-rising happened, but not the way it was supposed to---much to our supprise---CIA again.
The U.S supports Terrorism against Cuba---thats a fact. It can be 'justified" just as all terroristas justify their actions.
Next , someone will say ---if its so d#mn good there --GO HOME!!! lol!!
Seriously, the U.S. is a wonderful country with much to be proud of---but this is not one of those things.

[Wino]

Originally Posted by Fidelista

.....Xico, you are correct in another thing, If Mr Castro were a hated tyrant---he would have killed a long time ago. Many people misunderstand that---the majority of Cubans support Mr Castro and always have.
During the planning of the Mercenary invasion of Cuba,{Bay of pigs} the U.S govt misunderstood this completely. They were counting on an up-rising.
The up-rising happened, but not the way it was supposed to---much to our supprise---CIA again.
The U.S supports Terrorism against Cuba---thats a fact. It can be 'justified" just as all terroristas justify their actions.
Next , someone will say ---if its so d#mn good there --GO HOME!!! lol!!
Seriously, the U.S. is a wonderful country with much to be proud of---but this is not one of those things.

Damn, swap names, Iraq for Cuba, seems we have a repeat of history, except Castro won and Saddam lost. Really weird, since Cuba 90 mi. away and Iraq 10K.

[GoneForNow]

the majority of Cubans support Mr Castro and always have.

Want to try backing that up..mainly cause it's bullshirt.

The reason Castro is treated the way he is and will be until he dies is he had the nerve to allow the USSR to install nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. Believe or not, the US takes the Monroe Doctrine seriously and for that reason Cuba will not have normal trade relations with the US until Fidel is planted six feet down. Is it fair? Who cares.

[xico]

Originally Posted by Fidelista

Ahhh! another fidelista lurking about!.
I think it should made clear that almost all Cubans would love >>>>>
more politcal freedom
more freedom of press
more trade
more travel
more money!
However, the price may be very high,too high, a loss of independence.
That is what has prevented the U.S. policy from working for over 40 yrs---no mystery there.
Few Cubans want to return to the 'good old days" of Mr Batista and his band of crooks. Those that do are found on rafts or living in S.Florida.
Xico, you are correct in another thing, If Mr Castro were a hated tyrant---he would have killed a long time ago. Many people misunderstand that---the majority of Cubans support Mr Castro and always have.
During the planning of the Mercenary invasion of Cuba,{Bay of pigs} the U.S govt misunderstood this completely. They were counting on an up-rising.
The up-rising happened, but not the way it was supposed to---much to our supprise---CIA again.
The U.S supports Terrorism against Cuba---thats a fact. It can be 'justified" just as all terroristas justify their actions.
Next , someone will say ---if its so d#mn good there --GO HOME!!! lol!!
Seriously, the U.S. is a wonderful country with much to be proud of---but this is not one of those things.

I thought my post would give you a little lift on a Sunday afternoon!

No, it's not "good" in Cuba, but only because of Big Brother's embargo and continual harrassment of Cuba. Look what the Gov did in Haiti! And they would love to do in Cuba, except the Cubans, they got something else going for them, spirit? strength? courage? it's more than just guts, it's also intelligence and the will to independence. I have a great deal of respect for Fidel. But the fact that he survived is a miracle. The CIA plotted at least 21 assassinations, and all of them were foiled. That's a miracle. And right under Uncle's foot, too. The US's antagonistic attitude toward socialism in Cuba is a misnomer. The US is antagonistic toward Cuba rather than China, only because Cuba is "small." "They" thought Iraq was small too. But my Oh my! What a surprise! Too bad the people have to pay for this kind of foolishness with the sweat of their taxes and their blood.

[Fidelista]

Originally Posted by gbrumb

Want to try backing that up..mainly cause it's bullshirt.

The reason Castro is treated the way he is and will be until he dies is he had the nerve to allow the USSR to install nuclear missiles on Cuban soil. Believe or not, the US takes the Monroe Doctrine seriously and for that reason Cuba will not have normal trade relations with the US until Fidel is planted six feet down. Is it fair? Who cares.

And why would Cuba need nuclear missles??? lol!!!
To keep their independance from N.America!.
Not a hard act to follow.
And when were the Atomic missles removed? It has been a few a few years now.
Its seems that N. America has a fixation with Cuba {obsession}---just have to control her.
Monroe doctrine?--that is a whole subject unto itself, but no Euro, Asian, Russian power is using Cuba as base against the U.S.---to threaten the U.S.
"Is it fair ---who cares", a very conservative position, and one that we will pay a price for somewhere --somehow. Well said gbrumb!!!!!!!

[Fidelista]

Originally Posted by Wino

Damn, swap names, Iraq for Cuba, seems we have a repeat of history, except Castro won and Saddam lost. Really weird, since Cuba 90 mi. away and Iraq 10K.

Cuba hasnt oil, and does not play a part in Israels agenda
Also , nobody in the know , would try to sell a popular uprising as they did in Iraq---exept maybe Mr. BUSH!!

[xico]

Want to try backing that up..mainly cause it's bullshirt.

That's interesting from a Freudian pov that you would attach the metaphor of animal fecal matter to threatening information.

I don't believe the Monroe Doctrine has anything to do with it. Historically the aristocracy has tried to over turn every peoples movement that threatened their power and their greed and their sense of superiority.
If they hate Fidel, it's because he gives the Cuban people and others hope for a human world. After all, the CIA was conspiring to murder him long before he allowed the Russians to bring in those missiles.

The fact that you don't care if it's fair or not is precisely the position of the aristocracy. Historically they have never cared about anyone but themselves.
I see them as ruthless sociopaths with delusions of grandeur.