Correspondent David Martin reports for CBS Evening News. Excerpt:
(CBS) Scientists at Sandia National Laboratory in Albuqurque, New Mexico, one of three nuclear weapons labs run by the Department of Energy are in revolt, threatening not to take required lie detector tests, because they include personal questions which have nothing to do with protecting secrets, reports CBS News Correspondent David Martin.
“What has precipitated the crisis within the Department of Energy is that the polygraphers are asking individual subjects what medications they’re taking despite their promises not to do so,” explained Sandia employee Al Zelicoff.
According to Zelicoff, one of 20,000 people throughout the nuclear weapons complex now required to take periodic lie detector tests, some key technicians have already refused and are now barred from working on nuclear weapons.
“They cannot in fact lay hands on the nuclear weapons and repair any problems that might occur in the field,” said Zelicoff.
Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff is the most outspoken critic of polygraph screening at the national laboratories. See also his unanswered letter to Senator Richard Shelby, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.