We speak with Willem Marx, a former intern with the Washington-based government contractor, the Lincoln Group. He spent a summer in Baghdad paying to plant pro-American articles secretly written by the U.S. military in the Iraqi press.

He held a loaded submachine gun while being driven through Baghdad by two Kurdish security men.

He had three million dollars in cash locked inside his bedroom in the Green Zone.

Armed with a gun, he interrogated Iraqi employees about whether they were doing their job.

He spent a summer in Baghdad paying to plant pro-American articles in the Iraqi press that were secretly written by the US military.

He was just 22 years old and he was an intern at the Lincoln Group, the Washington-based government contractor. The company gained notoriety last November after the Los Angeles Times first revealed it was being paid by the Pentagon to plant stories in the Iraqi press as part of a secret military propaganda campaign. A subsequent Pentagon investigation in March cleared the Lincoln Group of any wrongdoing.

Today, we speak with that former intern of the Lincoln Group. Willem Marx is a freelance writer and a graduate student in journalism at New York University. His article detailing his experience is published in the latest issue of Harpers Magazine. It's titled "Misinformation Intern: My summer as a military propagandist in Iraq." He joins us on the line from Uzbekistan.

* Willem Marx, former intern with the Lincoln Group in Iraq.

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