Muqtada al-Sadr may be the most powerful political figure in Iraq today. To the western media, he is known as the enigmatic young “firebrand cleric” who leads the seventy-thousand strong Shia militia called the Medhi Army. But to Iraqi Shia, he is much more: the latest in a storied line of religious heroes who have long battled against tyranny in Mesopotamia. Journalist Patrick Cockburn has spent much of the last five years reporting unembedded from Iraq, a country he’s covered since the late ’70s for the British newspaper The Independent. Now he’s written a new book called Muqtada. Faith Salie speaks with Patrick Cockburn on Fair Game.