Thread by @ggreenwald

European leaders -- including Germany's Merkel and France's Macron -- are furious over new reports this week that the Obama/Biden Admin used Danish intelligence in 2014 to spy on their own EU allies, including Merkel herself. Demanding answers from Biden:

msn.com/en-us/news/wor…

Recall that at the height of the Snowden reporting, Merkel was so furious with Obama that she accused him of using "Stasi" tactics to spy on her and entire European populations -- a rather stinging accusation given her childhood in East Germany:

theguardian.com/world/2013/dec…

In my 2014 book based on NSA reporting, I described a program whereby NSA cooperated with Danish intelligence to spy on US allies. Snowden himself warned of how Denmark could be used by the US to spy on German leaders and German citizens:

theintercept.com/2014/06/18/nsa…

At the height of the NSA reporting, anger over NSA domestic spying was so high that a bipartisan bill - from @justinamash & John Conyers to restrict NSA domestic surveillance - was about to pass until Obama got Pelosi to whip enough Dem votes to block it:

foreignpolicy.com/2013/07/25/how…

After that, ISIS replaced the increasing toothless Al Qaeda as the Great Villain, which, in 2016, was replaced after a mediocre two-year stint by RUSSIA, which is now replaced by DOMESTIC EXTREMISTS and insurrectionists, and spying is popular again.

The New Enemy always scares.

In case anyone is still confused about the type of events that shaped my current view of the Democratic Party:

When I first started writing about politics in 2005, a common, arguably defining view of liberal bloggers was that the Dem Party was led by really, really good people who really wanted to do good things, but just lacked the courage, so you had to tell them: stiffen your spine!💪

It's stunning how -- 16 years later -- many (perhaps most) of them still actually believe that, even after everything they've seen.