FOIA Request for DoDPI Polygraph Handbook

This FOIA request was sent to Mr. Leslie R. Blake, head of the Defense Security Service Office of Freedom of Information and Privacy, by e-mail to <leslie.blake@mail.dss.mil> on 14 March 2002. See also a follow-up message dated 17 March 2002 providing additional reasoning why the requested document should be released under the Freedom of Information Act.

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552). I request that a copy of the following document be provided to me:

The document requested is that described in DoD's Polygraph Program Report to Congress for Fiscal Year 2000 (or a more current version of that document, if one exists):

This document is also mentioned in similar reports for fiscal years 1999 and 1998 as well as on the DoDPI Quality Assurance Program's web page:

The information provided in the requested document is of great public interest, because it is needed for any independent assessment of whether a polygraph examination was conducted in compliance with DoDPI techniques and procedures.

For example, on 3 April 2001, LT Robert A. Bailey, USN, testified before the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that Special Agent Robert Hyter, a polygrapher with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service, in 1999 conducted polygraph examinations of CTR1 Daniel M. King under sleep-deprived conditions following abusive interrogation regarding the relevant issues. Are these practices consistent with DoDPI techniques and procedures?

In A Convenient Spy: Wen Ho Lee and the Politics of Nuclear Espionage, journalists Dan Stober and Ian Hofmann write that the FBI lured Los Alamos scientist Dr. Wen Ho Lee into a polygraph examination under false pretenses and that the polygrapher, named Hobgood, surprised him with the news that he was the suspect in an espionage investigation. In addition, the examination was reportedly conducted in an uncomfortably overheated room with one of the polygraph attachments painfully tightened. Are these practices consistent with DoDPI techniques and procedures?

Release of the requested handbook is necessary so that the public may independently assess whether the behaviors alleged in the polygraph examinations of CTR1 King and Dr. Lee -- as well as any behaviors that may, in the future, be alleged with regard to any other polygraph examinations -- are consistent with DoDPI techniques and procedures.

What gives this request added urgence [sic] is that on 28 February 2002, Senators Patrick Leahy and Charles Grassley introduced the FBI Reform Act of 2002 (S. 1974), which would expand the FBI counterintelligence polygraph program. Section 403 of this bill directs the Attorney General to ensure "quality assurance and quality control in accordance with any guidance provided by the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute..." The DoDPI guidance referred to is included in the handbook that is the subject of this FOIA request.

Because the information provided in the requested handbook is necessary for informed public debate (and indeed, for informed Congressional debate) of the merits of the polygraph provisions of the FBI Reform Act of 2002, I ask that you give expedited consideration to this request.

I am willing to pay fees for this request up to a maximum of $25. If you estimate that the fees will exceed this limit, please inform me first.

I request, however, a waiver of fees for this request because disclosure of the requested information to me is in the public interest because it is likely to contribute significantly to public understanding of the operations or activities of the DoD and is not in my commercial interest.