Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondant for The Independent, discusses the Iraqi National Intelligence Service threat to sue Ahmed Chalabi, the myth that the “surge” pacified Iraq, the continued scarcity of clean water and electricity in Baghdad, a likely new UN resolution by the new year and how a Shia-dominated government may be strong enough to take over from the U.S.

MP3 here. (52:45)

Patrick Cockburn, Middle East correspondent of The Independent, has been visiting Iraq since 1978. He was awarded the 2005 Martha Gellhorn prize for war reporting in recognition of his writing on Iraq. He is the author of, his memoir, The Broken Boy, and with Andrew Cockburn, Saddam Hussein: An American Obsession, The Occupation: War, Resistance and Daily Life in Iraq and Muqtada: Muqtada al-Sadr, the Shia revival and the Struggle for Iraq.