The bullet holes punched into the center mass of this pistol-packing suburban soccer mom weren’t fired by ISIS terrorists preparing for a shopping-mall assault, or by local cops training against an active shooter at the local school. They were fired by a Marine during special operations “realistic military training,” or RMT, in Gulfport, Mississippi.

Twice every year, the FBI assembles the National Mission Force for Marble Challenge, a complex inter-agency test of the ability of the blackest parts of the federal government to find and “render safe” a ticking nuclear bomb. It is the domestic counterpart exercise to Vital Archer I wrote about yesterday that takes place in Canada, and a drill that has become more and more sophisticated over the years, folding in not just conventional and unconventional military assets but also scientists from the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the dark, they come in, shielded from public view by a police perimeter and an inner line of uniformed guardians. The target is reserved for the Tier I forces: They’ve practiced hundreds of times, rappelling onto the roof, banging down doors, hop-scotching down corridors, sweeping rooms. When it’s all clear, the scientists are ushered in with their detection gear and their “render safe” machines and tools. The orders are crystal clear: Do everything and anything to get to the nuke before it explodes, take no chances, shoot to kill.

Faster than a soldier can react. Remember that phrase because it will lead you to killer robots.

The Daily Beast is reporting that the administration is warning members of Congress not to visit Afghanistan during the 2015 fighting season this summer because of the heightened danger. It’s not the first time such cautions have been urged, but this year, coming after the official end of combat operations and the triumphal return and rise of Joe, Congressional sources are saying it contradicts the rosy picture being conveyed.

Who is the man that is going to lead America’s military?

Red Gate Group. The name is somewhat ominous. But don’t get too excited. It isn’t Blackwater and it’s only a $10 million a year operation. There’s no scandal; no hidden political contribution; no device that doesn’t work; there’s nothing unique at all. In fact it’s merely one of literally hundreds of companies just like it. And if and when it’s gone — when it’s likely sold to some bigger company for a handsome profit — a Blue Gate or Black Gate or Green Gate Group will take its place.

There are dozens of military and intelligence exercises, war games, conferences, trade shows, and specialty conventions happening every month — both at home and abroad, from every branch of the national security world and their affiliated civilian contractors. We’ve bookmarked a select few, but by no means all, that we’re monitoring this week, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for the unusual or the absurd, the extravagant, the publicized and the secret. If you have any to add that you think are interesting, please let us know!

The drought in America is historic, affecting more than 30 percent of the United States and 37 percent of the lower 48 states. My friend, John Fleck , who used to write about nukes at the Albuquerque Journal, is the doyen of all things water in the west, and when we met last year in New Mexico, he put the fear of God in me. “This is unknown territory for all of us,” the National Park Service said this weekend of Lake Mead. The government drought portal maintained by the departments of Agriculture, Interior, Energy, and Commerce is a scary destination. The States are seized by the problem; no sizable precipitation is forecast through July.

When I wrote about the Jordan-based Eager Lion exercise in 2012, I pointed out that it had supplanted Bright Star, the U.S.-Egypt nobody-here-but-us-nice-guys exercise, as the largest in the Middle East. The press releases that used to describe that annual strokeathon were boilerplate: most important U.S.-ally in the Middle East (!), promoting cooperation (!), second largest recipient of U.S. arms (behind you know who) so they might as well know how to use those arms.

On Ambassador Road, just off I-695 around the corner from the FBI, nearly 100 employees sit in a high-tech suite and wait for terrorists to attack Baltimore. They’ve waited 11 years. But they still have plenty of work to do, like using the intel community’s toys to target this week’s street protests.

It’s after midnight. From this mountaintop perch, he can still see the radioactive remains of what used to be Washington, D.C., illuminating the horizon as he exits the helicopter. The nuclear glow serves as stark proof that the intelligence community failed to foresee and prevent the worst, but at least someone was smart enough to build this mountain bunker in rural Virginia for him and his fellow spies to regroup and survive. He opens the reinforced steel door and begins his descent.

Andrew Cockburn is one third of a famous Irish journalist trio of brothers (along with Patrick and the late Alexander), and an intrepid reporter in his own right. He’s covered Iraq, both before and after the 2003 invasion, the Colombian cocaine cartels, the Red Princes that rule China, the rise of modern slavery, blood diamonds in Africa, and the covert U.S.-Israeli defense and intelligence connection. He co-produced the 1997 DreamWorks feature movie The Peacemaker, and American Casino, the 2009 feature documentary on the Wall Street crash; and, for the Gawkerverse, he’s the father of actress Olivia Wilde.

Everyone sing along! Al Qaeda’s connected to the Colombian FARC, the Colombian FARC’s connected to the Mexican Sinaloa, Sinaloa is connected to the Chinese Triads, the Triads are connected to Hezbollah, Hezbollah’s connected to the Mexican Zetas, which all ends up in the streets of Los Angeles.

Next week, U.S. and Mexican military commands will secretly get together to practice cross-border operations, including scenarios that involve the massive movement of Mexican citizens into Arizona as a result of a magnitude 7.8 Southern California earthquake, and suspected outbreaks of diseases caused by terrorist use of biological weapons.

I am watching the reaction to the unintended drone killing of civilian hostages American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto and sensing a sea change. The kind that rocks Washington in inscrutable ways, the kind that puts an end to the he said/she said back and forth, the kind that unites both sides—all sides—in asking the tough questions that go beyond what went wrong and focus on what we are doing.

The two American al-Qaeda members killed in counterterrorism operations acknowledged by the White House this morning, Adam Gadahn and Ahmed Farouq, were the fifth and sixth Americans killed in drone strikes. Both were killed in January, according to information released so far, in two separate operations. The White House says that it “declassified” the operations and deaths because Obama felt the American people deserved to know about them, but one source familiar with the way the story played out tells me that reporters had been nosing around about American Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto, two hostages who were also killed by our drones.

Today marks the beginning of what I hope will be many opportunities to introduce true practitioners in the world of spying and killing to Phase Zero readers. Our first guest is Malcolm Nance, a 34-year veteran intelligence officer who has worked the Iraq mission since 1987, fighting in all of our Middle East wars since 1983. He has lived in and out of Iraq since 2003.

“The overall wild thing that went on here just cannot ever be condoned by the court,” said Judge Royce Lamberth last week, sentencing three former Blackwater security people to 30 years and one day in prison and the fourth to a life term for their roles in the Sept. 16, 2007, shooting of 14 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad.

There are dozens of military and intelligence exercises, war games, conferences, trade shows, and specialty conventions happening every month — both at home and abroad, from every branch of the national security world and their affiliated civilian contractors. We’ve bookmarked a select few, but by no means all, that we’re monitoring this week, and we’ll be keeping an eye out for the unusual or the absurd, the extravagant, the publicized and the secret. If you have any to add that you think are interesting, please let us know! And tell us why you think they’re interesting, because that feedback gives us a better understanding of the kind of stories you want featured on this site. One of our core missions at Phase Zero is to create a dialogue about what is happening in the world of national security, and your interest, curiosity and hypotheses are what initiate those conversations.