In an article ironically titled “Americans See Through Blind Eyes,” Toby Westerman of WorldNetDaily reports on Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies dean David Major’s call for expanded polygraph screening. Excerpt:
Polygraph examinations – lie detector tests – should be given to all U.S. government personnel having access to secret information in order to prevent a similar spy scandal to that of accused FBI spy, Robert Hanssen, according to a former top counterintelligence officer.
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One proposal that received approval from all top-level Reagan officials was to require those having access to sensitive military secrets to submit to a polygraph examination.
Those in sensitive positions “should be able to pass the question – ‘Are you a spy?'” stated Major, who was involved in the Reagan administration’s deliberation on the subject.
If the individual is unable to answer the question without difficulty, “maybe you should have to reevaluate that person,” Major suggested.
The suggestion was made that all government officials take a polygraph examination, since access to secret information, according to Major, is open to nearly all levels of government.
The drive for polygraph tests ended when then-Secretary of State George Shultz stated that he would take the examination – and then resigned in protest.
This last point about former Secretary of State George P. Shultz first saying he would take a polygraph examination and then resigning in protest is dead wrong. Shultz never agreed to be polygraphed and said he would resign if ordered to submit. President Reagan relented, and Shultz kept his job. America’s counterintelligence community would do well to end its own wilful blindness with regard to polygraphy and acknowledge that “the lie behind the lie detector” is no secret.