In an article entitled “FBI to Expand Polygraph Testing After Spy Case,” Reuters correspondent James Vicini notes that Attorney General John Ashcroft said in a press conference that he knows polygraph screening “tests” to have a 15% false positive rate. (Ashcroft’s actual words were, “The polygraph is said to have about 15 percent false positives…”) This being the case, on what ethical basis does he allow federal law enforcement agencies to arbitrarily terminate the applications of applicants who “fail” the “test” and blackball them? Excerpt:
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The FBI, embarrassed to discover one of its agents allegedly sold secrets to Moscow for 15 years, will expand the use of polygraph tests and will more closely audit access to computers and other information, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Thursday.
He told a Justice Department news conference that he and FBI Director Louis Freeh had agreed on the interim measures after last month’s arrest of Robert Hanssen, a 25-year FBI veteran and counter-intelligence expert.
Justice Department officials said the expanded use of polygraphs and tighter security access to information would go into effect immediately while former FBI and CIA chief William Webster reviews what changes should be made at the FBI.
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Ashcroft said polygraph testing was not a perfect tool.
He said the tests have a 15 percent rate for “false positives” — showing deception when someone is not really lying — and that in some past cases the tests have failed to uncover espionage.
That appeared to be a reference to former CIA officer Aldrich Ames, who was given a polygraph test, but was not detected, at a time when he was spying for Moscow. He was sentenced in 1994 to life in prison.