Insight with Patrick Cockburn – the real Muqtada Al-Sadr – FULLY BOOKED

Award winning war correspondent Patrick Cockburn examines the role of Muqtada al-Sadr – the man who leads a movement in Iraq that opposed both Saddam Hussein and the US occupation.

Patrick Cockburn is the Middle East correspondent for the Independent and has been reporting from Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting and the James Cameron Memorial Award in 2006. He is the author of The Occupation: War and Resistance in Iraq (shortlisted for a National Book Critics Circle Award in 2007), The Broken Boy, a memoir, and, with Andrew Cockburn, Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein.

In his latest book Muqtada Al-Sadr and the Fall of Iraq he describes one of the most important political figures in post-occupation Iraq. At first grossly underestimated by the US, Al-Sadr has become the kingmaker in Iraq and a force that is indispensable to any Iraqi government. His combination of nationalism and religious fervour have also proved deeply attractive to countless angry and impoverished Iraqi Shia.

Moderated by Caroline Hawley – BBC Special Correspondent. Previously BBC Middle East Correspondent and Baghdad Correspondent.