Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Jo Anne Allen writes for Reuters. Excerpt: WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Some U.S. nuclear weapons scientists in New Mexico are boycotting required polygraph tests on the grounds that they contain questions unrelated to national security, a senior scientist said on Wednesday. “The polygraphers are asking medical questions — what medication you’re taking and what medical conditions …
Washington Post staff writers Vernon Loeb and Walter Pincus report on a planned Department of Defense review of the Naval Criminal Investigative Service’s investigation of Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel King. Excerpt: The Defense Department inspector general is investigating the Navy’s failed prosecution of Daniel M. King, a chief petty officer who was held for …
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, …
Elisabeth Bumiller reports for the New York Times. Excerpt: Michael R. Bloomberg, the billionaire who is a likely Republican candidate for mayor of New York City, said in a statement yesterday that a lie detector test administered in January showed that he was truthful in denying allegations of sexual harassment by a former employee. Mr. …
CBS 60 Minutes II reports on the case of Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Daniel King, who became a suspect after an inconclusive polygraph screening “test.” The Navy claims that King confessed to committing espionage in a post-test interrogation. King maintains that his alleged confession was false and the result of abusive interrogation tactics including …
This Huntsville Times editorial warns of the danger of substituting polygraphy for effective counterintelligence reform. Excerpt: A kid takes a gun to school and shoots some classmates. So parents and administrators respond by banning baggy pants and nose rings. A career FBI agent is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union and then …
Dan Verton reports in Computerworld that FBI computer systems specialists have been targeted for polygraph “testing.” Excerpt: (March 26, 2001) The FBI has quietly expanded its use of the polygraph to cover systems administrators and all other employees with access to sensitive computer networks and databases, marking the first time that government IT specialists have …
Washington Post staff writers Dan Eggen and David A. Vise provide new details about the expanded polygraph screening of FBI employees ordered by Director Louis Freeh. Excerpt: About 500 FBI employees with access to intelligence information will be given lie detector tests beginning next week, the first security reform to come from the arrest of …
In an article mistitled “Freeh beefs up FBI’s security,” Washington Times correspondent Jerry Seper reports that FBI Director Louis Freeh has already ordered expanded polygraph screening within the Bureau. Excerpt: FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, stung by the arrest of one of his own agents as a Russian spy, has ordered sweeping changes in the …
Knight Ridder Washington bureau correspondent Lenny Savino reports. Excerpt: WASHINGTON – The FBI has responded to the Robert Hanssen spy case by quietly ordering polygraphs of 500 FBI employees in key national security positions. “Before this only those with access to very sensitive cases were required to take polygraphs,” FBI spokesman Bill Carter said Thursday. …