Leaks force cancellation of ICE operations (02-10-2025--Hour2)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepeekkalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, right to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:28] So apparently we have a leak problem inside the Department of Homeland Security. Somebody is leaking, right? About the locations of ICE operations. So this is the resistance. The Department of Homeland Security has a leak problem. It marks now the second time, might actually even be the third, that an ICE raid has been released.

[00:00:58] revealed to the public beforehand. So there was first an ICE raid in Colorado, Aurora, Colorado, that was leaked last week. Now, the Los Angeles Times is reporting on another operation that is in the works for Los Angeles.

[00:01:22] And they got the documentation to prove it. So somebody has leaked the operational documents to the LA Times. And they published them. So this gets into a lot of different things, but like the media side of this.

[00:01:46] Like what is the news value of reporting that an ICE operation is going to occur? See, that's the kind of discussion that would occur. And I would like to believe did occur, but I have no idea if it did or not. And if it did, how long did it occur? Was there anybody taking a position that said, no, we should not publish this?

[00:02:14] Right. Just like, and this may come as a surprise to you, but we get informed in the media. We get informed a lot of times in advance of a traffic enforcement operation. So if they're going to be running DUI checks or something like that used to happen a lot more. I don't know if they still do so much. I don't, like I don't get a lot of the emails on this stuff from,

[00:02:42] from law enforcement agencies and the like, but they used to keep like, we would get regular bulletins basically, and they would be embargoed, you know, Hey, here's some information. There's going to be this checkpoint. It's going to be set up here at this day and time, whatever. Do not publicize. And you would not publicize. And then I think at one point, some outlet did publicize it and maybe that's why they quit doing it or something, but they used to do it all the time.

[00:03:13] And there was always this understanding that they are letting us know ahead of time. So when we in the newsroom are sitting there monitoring radio traffic and we start hearing all of the, you know, people talking over the, uh, the walkie talkies on the channels about whatever's going on out there, we don't dispatch seven different news vans to the scene to find out what's going on. And, you know, police don't have to take a dozen calls from all these different,

[00:03:42] you know, assignment desk editors and news reporters trying to find out what's going on. Why are we hearing all this scanner traffic? So they just tell you ahead of time, Hey, we're doing this thing. It happens a lot with training as well, right? If they're going to be running some sort of a training thing, you know, kicking in fake doors and that kind of stuff. And they don't want people to freak out. They will tell media ahead of time. Um, because we sitting back, listening to the scanner, we won't know that it's not real.

[00:04:09] So, and this has, you've probably heard stories about this where, you know, there's some sort of police incident and then maybe a little bit later, like within an hour, it's like, Oh, it's a training operation. And then it doesn't get reported on anymore. Um, there are reasons why you don't do those things. Also media doesn't generally report on suicides unless they impact, um, people in some way. Like if somebody were to commit suicide in a way that, uh, you know, impedes traffic.

[00:04:39] And now there's a big traffic jam. That's why you'll hear sometimes on the traffic reports, it'll be something like, um, you know, a police situation and they won't say what it is. Why? Because there are copycats and people will then try to get their own fame. So we robbed them of that in order to, I don't say we robbed them, but we, we withhold that kind of publicity so as to not encourage more people to do it. Right?

[00:05:09] So those are the kinds of ethical questions that these newsrooms, LA times in this case are supposed to be undertaking. They're supposed to be talking about, okay, what is the impact of us reporting this story? So what is the news value? Is it news? Okay. Yes. I think it does count as news that ice is going to be doing these operations. I don't know who they're targeting.

[00:05:35] I don't know if it's an industry or a business or people's homes or whatever, but what is the impact of us reporting this? And one of the big impacts is officer safety, agent safety, innocent bystander safety. So when you report that this thing is going to happen and if ice carries out the raids

[00:06:03] or the operations or whatever they may be, if people know they can arm up, they can flee, they can take hostages, they can do all sorts of things that jeopardize a lot of people's lives. And so you don't report on that. It would be like saying, hey, the, you know, uh, violent criminal task force is about to go serve a warrant on Joe Smith living at this address at two o'clock in the afternoon. Here are the orders. You would not report that.

[00:06:33] You would not report that. This is why you don't also, you know, show images when you're flying overhead in a chopper or you've got a drone over a hostage standoff situation. So you don't show police positions, right? Because it gets people killed. That's why you don't do that. So why are you reporting this ahead of time? Well, precedent now has been set after the Aurora, Colorado one, because what happened in Aurora?

[00:07:02] They called off the operation. Think about that. They called off the operation in Aurora, Colorado. What happened in Aurora? Immigration related. What was the deal with Aurora, Colorado? That's right. It was where Trendy Arawa went and took over an apartment building. There's not that many, right? According to one of those, who was that?

[00:07:32] Margaret Brennan. Was that Margaret Brennan? I forget who it was. Leslie Stahl, maybe? Oh, it's not that many apartment buildings, Vice President Vance. Remember that? Yeah. So you leak the information. It gets publicized. And then the operation gets called off. And so what does that mean? The result is that violent gangbangers get away.

[00:08:01] Hey, that's what you've done by reporting this. That's what you've done. Because the agents can't very well go carry out the operation. And so now the media knows and the people who are leaking the information, they know that if I, inside Department of Homeland Security, if I leak the orders and the battle plans, basically, if I give them to a media outlet, they also know if they report it, then it short circuits the operation from occurring.

[00:08:31] So that is a politically motivated thing to do. There's only one reason why you would be publicizing this information ahead of time. It's to stop the operation from happening, which means you have people inside DHS that are acting in subordination and, or in insubordination, and you have media that are acting with a political agenda to thwart immigration enforcement, law enforcement. You're aiding and abetting criminal activity, gang criminal activity, by the way.

[00:09:01] Home invasions, robberies, and such. You are an accomplice to that stuff now. All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events. And I know you do, too. And you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app, and it's a website, and it combines news from around the world in one place, so you can compare coverage and verify information.

[00:09:30] You can check it out at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description, too. I started using Ground News a few months ago, and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blindspot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link, and you'll get 15% off any subscription.

[00:10:00] I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast, but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. So the Department of Homeland Security has a leak problem. Leaking information about operations for ICE. First, it was Aurora, Colorado.

[00:10:24] Now the latest is Los Angeles County, home to more than 800,000 undocumented residents. All they're lacking is documents, people. That's the only thing. Federal law enforcement agents were planning a large-scale immigration enforcement action by the end of the month. LA Times reporting the operation would be spearheaded by ICE and would focus on people

[00:10:50] who do not have legal status or who already have pending orders of removal. So again, think about that. The LA Times is telling people who have been told to leave the country, they're giving them a heads up that, hey, they're going to come and try to get you to leave the country, which is what a court told you to do. A federal law enforcement source who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of, you know, being fired,

[00:11:20] or as the LA Times calls it, reprisals, said, look, this is not whistleblower stuff, okay? This is not whistleblower stuff. This is insubordination at minimum, and this is a fireable offense, and quite possibly criminal.

[00:11:43] You have access to information about an operation that is going to put people's lives in jeopardy. Whenever you're going after people, especially like the hardcore criminals that have been ordered to be removed, and you start alerting those criminals, that's like conspiracy, no? Agents with the FBI and the DEA LA field offices are also being called in to assist.

[00:12:13] According to Matt Vespa's article at townhall.com, most federal law enforcement agencies have deportation powers. The U.S. Marshals Service, for example, the DEA, the ATF, they all have the power to deport illegal aliens along with ICE. And soon, local law enforcement, through their agreements with the Department of Homeland Security, will also have that same power, right?

[00:12:42] And this is necessary because the number of illegal aliens allowed to enter the country under the Biden administration is so large that ICE cannot possibly do it all by themselves. They need the cooperation of other law enforcement agencies to help them on these operations. They need the manpower.

[00:13:08] And so, because you don't need, we don't need to staff up ICE to some, you know, massive bloated agency that, like, you know, you think it through, you game it all out and say, okay, let's say they complete the mission, they get rid of everybody they're supposed to get rid of, then you can't ever downsize ICE again, right? Because now you're going to have an entrenched employee base that's not going to want to get fired.

[00:13:37] So you don't want to, you know, staff up this agency to the point where it becomes a behemoth. You just, because for normal circumstances, you don't need as many agents as we need right now. So the idea is you bring in the other agencies, you get these other officials to help, and then once the mission is accomplished, everybody goes back to doing what they were doing before. They're just there as a support function. And so maybe some of these people are leaking the information.

[00:14:06] So now you're going to have to run sort of a counterintelligence operation inside Department of Homeland Security. You're going to have to put out some, you know, fake orders, basically, like we did with D-Day, right? Where you create all these maps and plans, and some of them are fake. And you do that, so not only if it gets into the enemy's hands, they're planning for an operation that's actually not going to happen.

[00:14:35] And you're able to identify people that had that information. You can narrow the search down to the people that had those maps, those orders, right? So, like, to me, that's a way to get at the mole. Because that's what you got. You've got a mole inside the government that's giving this information to a complicit media

[00:14:56] that sees its role, apparently, in Aurora and in Los Angeles as to aid and abet people who have been ordered out of the country to evade removal. The L.A. Times, this is from Bill Malugian. He's a Fox local reporter in Los Angeles, and he's done a ton of work on the immigration situation.

[00:15:23] He says the Aurora operation was leaked with CBS and NBC, and that forced ICE to reschedule it last week. And when they rescheduled it, the op was a failure. A large-scale Chicago operation was also leaked to the media during Trump's first week in office, leading to a canceling and rescheduling of that op as well.

[00:15:47] It is extremely dangerous for ICE officers to have their plans leaked and for their targets to know they are coming. Malugian says somebody either does not want these operations to succeed or is overzealous in sharing operational details that should be kept under wraps, an early issue for this new Trump administration to face. Here's a great idea. How about making an escape to a really special and secluded getaway in western North Carolina,

[00:16:16] just a quick drive up the mountain? And Cabins of Asheville is your connection. Whether you're celebrating an anniversary, a honeymoon, maybe you want to plan a memorable proposal, or get family and friends together for a big ol' reunion, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you, where you can reconnect with your loved ones and the things that truly matter. Nestled within the breathtaking 14,000 acres of the Pisgah National Forest, their cabins offer a serene escape in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

[00:16:43] Centrally located between Asheville and the entrance of the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, it's the perfect balance of seclusion and proximity to all the local attractions. With hot tubs, fireplaces, air conditioning, smart TVs, Wi-Fi, grills, outdoor tables, and your own private covered porch, choose from 13 cabins, 6 cottages, 2 villas, and a great lodge with 11 king-sized bedrooms, Cabins of Asheville has the ideal spot for you for any occasion.

[00:17:11] And they have pet-friendly accommodations. Call or text 828-367-7068. Or check out all there is to offer at cabinsofashville.com and make memories that'll last a lifetime. I mentioned Bill Melugin. Here was another tweet that he sent. I believe this was not last night, maybe like two nights ago. He said, In response to Trump's executive orders, the Coast Guard announces it'll immediately surge boats, cutters, aircraft.

[00:17:41] Sorry, no, this is actually from like two weeks ago, a week or so ago. But the Coast Guard's going to be surging boats, cutters, aircraft, and specialized forces to the southeast border around Florida to prevent mass illegal migration from Haiti and Cuba. And will also surge resources to the maritime border around Alaska, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories of Guam. Wait, has that not capsized yet?

[00:18:09] Also the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The maritime border is well between the Bahamas and South Florida. The Southwest maritime border between the U.S. and Mexico in the Pacific. The maritime border between Texas and Mexico in the Gulf of America. So that's a thing now. And support to customs and border protection on maritime portions of the southwest U.S. border. Coast Guard says, quote,

[00:18:39] Together in coordination with our Department of Homeland Security and Department of Defense teammates, we will detect, deter, and interdict illegal migration, drug smuggling, and other terrorist or hostile activity before it reaches our borders. Luke Rosiak, an investigative reporter for The Daily Wire, reported also that Fairfax County, Virginia,

[00:19:03] is facing a $300 million budget deficit for its schools. $300 million deficit for schools. Fairfax County. They spent $142 million teaching migrant children English last year. So they're running a $300 million deficit,

[00:19:26] and almost half of it could be attributed to teaching migrant children English. Consultants have now been hired to ask if people would rather have police, fire, or parks cut to resolve the county deficit. These are the real-world implications. Right? These are the trade-offs. As, you know, Thomas Sowell has said, I quote him frequently, there are no solutions, there are only trade-offs.

[00:19:57] And you have a county $300 million budget deficit, and so now they're going to people and saying, which do you want cut? Police, fire, or parks? I have talked about this tactic many, many times. The core functions of government, police and fire. I'm not so sure about the parks, but police and fire are core functions.

[00:20:25] And that's what they lord over people. That's the thing that they use to get people to acquiesce, to surrender, to tax increases. They're like, we can't possibly keep funding the local government, and so we're going to have to make cuts. So where do you want it to get cut there, you stingy taxpayers? Huh? Huh? No, no, no. These are your options. Police, fire, and parks. That's it. Those are the only three options,

[00:20:53] because we just cut to the bone on everything else. And everything else is not actually cut to the bone. Cutting to the bone would mean getting rid of some of those other expenditures. But they don't want to do that. So they offer you this, quote, choice, a false choice, that it's either tax rate increases or no police. There's an email from Kevin.

[00:21:21] He says, I sent you the below comments a little while back, but I didn't get a counter argument from you on why it would be a bad thing. Well, I don't know if I said, I don't know if I've read this or not. So, like, I don't know if, I don't necessarily, I don't counter every argument. I mean, I can offer you some ideas about what others may think. I haven't even read the idea yet. But thinking along the lines of those who once, or who one second say defund the police until they get robbed,

[00:21:50] and then they say where are the police when we need them, Kevin's idea is to not go into cities and states that say they will not cooperate with ICE. Being sure to make it public knowledge you are doing this. So, like, visiting? Hang on, there's more. This will encourage all those illegal immigrants with a criminal record to go to those places.

[00:22:21] Then just give it time and let that work its magic on those cities, drugs, crime, etc., and then see how long it takes for them to say, well, maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Like what happened with Oregon making illegal drugs legal and then saying, oh, crap, we made a mistake. Okay. So maybe you're talking about ICE going into those states. Is that, so if a city, let's say a city, because a state is a harder thing

[00:22:50] because you've got people in different parts of the state that, you know, may be supportive of what you want as far as enforcement, but they don't live in the city. And the cities dictate the legislative outcomes. And so these people have no, they have no say. So they want increased enforcement, but they're not getting it. So let's go like sanctuary city. So if you have a sanctuary city, you're saying, don't do any raids in those cities.

[00:23:19] And then the word goes out that these are sanctuary cities. And then all of the criminal elements will basically go into those cities, turn them into hell holes. And then people will be like, all right, let's stop the madness. I mean, you could do that, I guess. Sure. But I don't think the criminals just stay in those sanctuary cities. Right? I think they also would leave the city confines. Right? They would go outside city limits, victimize a bunch of people out in the surrounding areas.

[00:23:49] And so you're forcing them to live under that kind of policy as well. I mean, look, if ICE is going to get thwarted every single time they try to do these operations, sanctuary city, you know, agents or officials are leaking this stuff to the media to thwart the operations, then maybe that's the way to go. Well, I don't know. Apply a bunch of pressure.

[00:24:16] I still think that it should be enforcement by, you know, the proper authorities to actually enforce the laws. All right. I hope you had a happy holiday season. But tell me if something like this happened at your house. Your family and friends are gathered around. Maybe y'all are in the living room. You're laughing, swapping stories, reminiscing. And then somebody says, hey, dad, remember those old VHS tapes? Did you ever get them transferred? And then the room gets all quiet.

[00:24:44] All eyes are on dad who says, oh, you know, well, I've been meaning to, but I just haven't gotten around to it. Look, don't let those priceless memories sit in a box for another year. All right. Create a Video has been helping families in the Charlotte area preserve their history since 1997. Simply bring in your old camcorder tapes and Create a Video will transfer them to a USB flash drive for just $14.95 per tape. You have a big collection? They've got a discount for you.

[00:25:12] And next year, instead of talking about those memories, imagine gathering the family to watch them together. Talk about a memorable gift. So do what I did. Trust the experts at Create a Video, conveniently located in Mint Hill, right off I-485, and online at createavideo.com. Let me get to a couple of messages here. But first, let me get to the phones and I'll talk with Steve. Hello, Steve. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much. Yes, sir.

[00:25:43] So my call is in regard to USAID and the discovery that they've been funding NGOs to destabilize governments that are friendly to the United States. Okay. Yeah. No, we've been covering that story in depth all last week. Yeah. Yep, yep, as you usually do.

[00:26:07] So my question really is along the lines of we cannot keep flip-flopping between Marxist leadership and free capital markets leadership. This country will never prosper in that way. Any comments you have to make on that? And when are we going to start seeing, in your opinion, some arrests with charges for treason?

[00:26:34] So on the treason thing, I doubt we'll see anything like that. It's such a shock to the system, you know, because of the penalties involved. So I would be surprised if we see actual treason charges. Now, there could be other lower offenses that get charged depending on what people did and what they could prove and that sort of thing. But I think it's a pretty high bar for treason.

[00:27:00] Although, like, I have heard people make arguments that are compelling to me, at least, that certain actions by certain people over the last decade do rise to that level. But I just – I think it's so rare because it's such a – like I said, a shock to the system.

[00:27:18] Regarding the flip-flopping and the Marxist – the funding of – you know, that comes out of a Marxist ideology, I would simply say that USAID has been funding these types of color revolutions,

[00:27:32] which, like, I am convinced that USAID has been operating at the very least in cooperation with, if not as an outright covert cover for the CIA in destabilizing some of these countries with their propaganda efforts and their mobilization efforts and that sort of stuff.

[00:27:54] And so I think that that has been going on for a long time, and I don't think that there has ever been USAID operating in a pro-free market way with these countries, at least probably for the last 20 or 30 years, right?

[00:28:09] I think that this has been corrupted by the left in America to act as essentially a jobs program and to foment upheaval with an eye towards creating more left-wing countries and governments in those countries. So I'm not sure that there's a flip-flop going on, you know? I think it's all been – I think the politicization has been in one direction. Does that make sense?

[00:28:39] Well, yeah, it does, except it's kind of like saying there's a snake without a head. And somebody – certainly I don't think a free market capitalist system and leadership would tolerate anybody doing that. And if we've known about it, they must have known about it for a very long time.

[00:29:01] And I suspect that all that stuff is primarily driven by Marxist ideology and a desire to flip this country. So, you know, there's a problem to be dealt with there somewhere. Oh, yeah. Oh, well, so, Steve, I think – yeah, I think part of the issue – and I think it was – I think it was Musk who said this a couple days ago that the technology was not sufficient for them.

[00:29:31] Even going back like two or three years ago is really when this tech became available for them to essentially collect and scrape all this data about where the grants are going and to track all of this money. They were not able to do it because the computing systems, whatever, weren't advanced enough at that time in order to make it a rapid process.

[00:29:56] You know, just keep in mind, USAID was, you know, doling out the money to these non-governmental organizations who would then distribute below them to other groups. And so USAID was never tracking what they called the sub-awardees. Once they gave it to – like if you ran an NGO, they would give it to you. And then that was it. That's as far as USAID would track it. And then you would turn around and hand it off to, you know, a dozen other agencies or groups or nonprofits.

[00:30:26] And there was no tracking of that. But now with the tech, they're able to track it. So I don't know. Yeah, so I – That leads – Yeah. No, go ahead. No, that – I was done. All right. So that leads – okay. I understand what you're saying and I appreciate that view. But that leads a little bit into the conversation about China and AI and the products they have in the market are coming soon.

[00:30:53] And my comment there is I cannot imagine any software product that China would bring to the world that doesn't also spy on the user. I agree. I completely agree. I don't trust China or any of their products at all. Don't want any of them on any phones. Steve, I appreciate the call. Because rule number one about communists, commies lie. Rule number one, they lie about everything. You can't trust them. All right. That'll do it for this episode.

[00:31:23] Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendorshow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening. And don't break anything while I'm gone. Thank you.