Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT), speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” expressed his support for polygraph “testing” of members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The following is an excerpt from the program transcript:
[TONY] SNOW [FOX NEWS]: First, there’s a proposal, or actually the FBI wants to submit some members of intelligence committees to polygraph tests, because it seems to have been established that somebody in Congress leaked classified information to the press in violation of federal law.
Now, all those staffers have been polygraphed and a number of others have been polygraphed. All of a sudden members say they don’t want it. Senator John Kerry says he thinks it ought to happen.
SNOW: What do you think? Do you think senators ought to submit themselves to polygraphs, so we can figure out who leaked this information to the press?
LIEBERMAN: I do. There’s much too much leaking going on in Washington. And at a time when leaks can lead to death, that’s serious. There’s too much leaking from within the administration about potential war plans against Saddam Hussein. And you can’t have a functioning and congressional committee overseeing intelligence if folks in the intelligence community come and report things to members of Congress and then they’re out in the media.
This investigation was called for by the co-chairs of the Intelligence Committee, and I think they’re absolutely right. And I do believe that our colleagues ought to submit to the polygraph test. I know polygraph tests are not 100 percent accurate. But everything we can do to send the message that no one, members of Congress included, certainly staff, should compromise personal and national security by leaking information publicly that is classified, and we ought to do it.