Put Your Bombs Between the Minarets

Kevin Sites is a “sojo” — solo broadcast journalist — who CNN has blogging from the front line between Iraq and Kuwait:

We have two birds in our CNN workspace, Anthrax and Smallpox. Parakeets. But for us, canaries in the coal mine. Tiny, organic early warning systems against a chemical or biological attack…
Our instructor, a good-natured Brit named Ian, has taught us nerve agents are undetectable, that blister agents smell of garlic, and that a choking agent will remind you of freshly cut grass — right before it ruptures your lungs and drowns you in your own fluids.