Johnny Jihad

de Ryan Inzana

Somewhere in devastated Afghanistan, John Sendel of Trenton, New Jersey, speaks his "sorry, short life" into a recorder. It is post 9-11, and the 16-year-old "social misfit" met "cagey Pakistani" Salim, who introduced him to the Qur'an and eventually drove him to a terrorist training camp. After his first, nearly failed mission--an assassination--the CIA nabbed him. He accepted their proposal to go to Afghanistan as a Taliban infiltrator in exchange for never being prosecuted and eventually coming home. Now, going home is moot. Crippled by a self-inflected wound, he awaits the bomb with his name on it.