Terry Gross

Writer, director and Oscar winner Anthony Minghella died of a brain hemorrhage Tuesday at age 54. Minghella's screen credits include The English Patient, The Talented Mr. Ripley and Cold Mountain.

Foreign correspondent Charles Sennot recently returned from Iraq, where he witnessed the U.S. military's "troop surge" first-hand as an embedded reporter with the Army's 28th Infantry Regiment.

Secularist Shiite politican Ahmad Chalabi was for years part of an opposition group dedicated to overthrowing former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. He's also the subject of the new book The Man Who Pushed America to War.