Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, January 15, 2026

Operations Benchwarmer, Tidal Wave, Abracadabra, Dust Off, Fleur De Lis " these are just a few of the secret programs recently undertaken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement. ICE has become a self appointed bouncer for America under Donald Trump, enlisting tens of thousands of federal, state, and local police and intelligence departments and agencies to not just root out "illegals," but also exploit them for intelligence, leaked documents show. A Border Patrol official outraged by ICE's conduct has leaked to me this and other documents providing an unprecedented glimpse into ICE's undeclared activities across the country. Many of these operations and their codenames have not been previously reported.

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More: The media is telling a certain story about ICE, giving the blow by blow on the most public horrors but never quite seeing the bigger picture that it's part of a larger war. As a military intelligence source told me, the ICE crackdown isn't just about immigration; it's about gathering intelligence in support of Trump's war on cartels " as well as on Antifa, on the radical left, and those who are "anti-American," and anyone else they consider terrorists. And since the administration has been so quick to label everyone, including Renee Good, terrorists, it's no wonder they think they're at war.

ICE's work is done under a set of task forces, with the agency calling upon other Department of Homeland Security agencies, like the Border Patrol, Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service, and even the Secret Service. DHS now constitutes the largest federal law enforcement agency in the country " larger even than the FBI. And that was before ICE had its law enforcement budget nearly tripled last year.

"Operation Abracadabra was initiated with the requirement of Interviewing 100% of individuals apprehended to gather intelligence and identify follow-on targets such as stash houses and individuals conducting illegal activity," one of the documents, a briefing slide, reads. The purpose, it continues, is "Tying every individual who crosses the border illegally to a Foreign Terrorist Organization, a Transnational Criminal Organization, and/or utilizing the intelligence to develop targets."

Another briefing about Operation Benchwarmer reveals the employment of agents dressing in "plainclothes" to disguise themselves as ordinary people in an attempt to gather intelligence.

"Plainclothes agents have been embedded in transport vans, sally ports, processing areas, and detention cells to gather important tactical intelligence and or information," the briefing says of this nationwide operation. The purpose? It's "focused on collecting information not normally gained during formal interviews."

#1 | Posted by qcp at 2026-01-15 01:31 PM | Reply

And ICE is using hi-tech Israeli spyware and sophisticated Palantir technologies: www.404media.co

Too bad previous Republican and Democratic administrations did nothing to dismantle DHS and abolish ICE since their post-9/11 creation as part of the "GWOT." Now we have a runaway train killing innocent people, tracking residents without warrants, terrorizing communities, and enriching the oligarchs with our hardworking taxpayer dollars.

#2 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-01-15 01:40 PM | Reply

ICE GANGSTER MEDALLIONS & SECRET DOCS FOUND in Abandoned Secret Police Vehicle Jesse Dollemore 3
30,524 views 2 hours ago

Challenge coins.. dudes, these goons deserve immediate arrest. These are terrorists.

#3 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-01-15 03:28 PM | Reply

The next non-Republican administration in 2028 and 2032 will have a huge dilemma on their hands if history holds a lesson for us.

Hundreds of thousands of returning Russian veterans from WW1 were so pissed, they became the vanguard of the Soviet Red Army and overturned the Czar and won the Russian Civil War (even with the Allies helping the White Russian Army).

Returning German soldiers from the same war were so demoralized and pissed, they formed patriotic veteran groups, one of them became the NSDAP. The sequel to All Quiet on the Western Front, "The Road Back" discusses this.

Defeated Nazis from WWII used ratlines to escape and allegedly had secret organizations to regroup one day. The Odessa Files was one such fictional treatment of this phenomenon.

US Soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan formed a criminal gang in Washington State. PTSD and ennui contributed to their problems.

The demobilized Contras in Latin America morphed into narco-traffickers.

The victorious CIA armed and trained Mujahadeen in Afghanistan evolved into al-Qaida.

What's going to happen to the tens of thousands of well-armed racist ICE Brownshirts on 21 Jan 2029 after they have been fired by Executive Order and ICE/DHS has been permanently dismantled?




#4 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-01-15 04:29 PM | Reply

What's going to happen to the tens of thousands of well-armed racist ICE Brownshirts on 21 Jan 2029 after they have been fired by Executive Order and ICE/DHS has been permanently dismantled?

4 | POSTED BY C0RI0LANUS

Easy. They'll start planting IEDs.

#5 | Posted by Zed at 2026-01-15 05:56 PM | Reply

All the ICE agents will be pardoned. So that will take a lot off the table.

#6 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-15 05:57 PM | Reply

"not just root out "illegals," but also exploit them for intelligence, leaked documents show."

^
This is what they're learning from IDF.

Now, you're a terrorist because some guy asked you for a cigarette and you gave him one and he's the terrorist.

#7 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-15 05:58 PM | Reply

We're all Palestinians now.

#8 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-01-15 06:04 PM | Reply

"The victorious CIA armed and trained Mujahadeen in Afghanistan evolved into al-Qaida."

The plan to fly airplanes into buildings was pitched to OBL by the CIA.
It was supposed to be hijacked Tupolevs from Kabul crashing into the Kremlin.

#9 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-15 06:24 PM | Reply

"The victorious CIA armed and trained Mujahadeen in Afghanistan evolved into al-Qaida."
The plan to fly airplanes into buildings was pitched to OBL by the CIA.
It was supposed to be hijacked Tupolevs from Kabul crashing into the Kremlin.
#9 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-01-15 06:24 PM

Donald Rumsfeld and rabbi Dov Zakheim, rather.

#10 | Posted by redlightrobot at 2026-01-15 06:27 PM | Reply

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