Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy comments in his Secrecy News e-mail publication:
DOE RESTRUCTURES POLYGRAPH PROGRAM
Under pressure from members of Congress, scientific critics and others, the Department of Energy said that it will reduce its reliance on polygraph testing to screen its employees.
“The approach I am recommending would have the effect of reducing the number of individuals affected from well in excess of potentially 20,000 under the current rule to approximately 4,500 under this new program,” said Deputy Secretary of Energy Kyle E. McSlarrow at a September 4 hearing.
Remarkably, however, Mr. McSlarrow also announced a separate random polygraph testing initiative, which is “an entirely new proposed element” of the DOE polygraph program. Random testing would apply in an unpredictable manner to an additional 6,000 persons not covered by mandatory polygraph screening.
This is truly novel. It is sort of a homeopathic approach to security policy, in which the mere specter of a polygraph test, not even an actual test, is believed to have a deterrent effect and to enhance security.
Under the random screening program, the affected personnel “would be subject to random selection for polygraph examinations at any time, at any frequency…. even though it is possible that an individual in such a position may never actually be selected through the random process,” said Mr. McSlarrow. In fact, it seems doubtful that the majority of the 6,000 employees in the proposed random testing program would ever be tested.
Although firm numbers were not immediately available, the Department has probably not come close to testing the 20,000 persons who were nominally subject to the program since it began a few years ago. Consequently, the new “reduction” in the scope of its polygraph program is more apparent than real.
See the testimony from the September 4 hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on the DOE polygraph program here: