Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
In this Washington Post editorial, the Post comments on polygraph policy in light of the National Academy of Sciences’ devastatingly critical report on polygraphy, concluding: One obvious conclusion from this sobering account is that more rigorous studies of polygraphs and their applications in government need to take place. A large number of people every year …
Dr. Drew C. Richardson calls for the abolishment of polygraph screening in this Washington Times op-ed piece. Excerpt: Recently, the National Academy of Sciences issued a landmark report regarding the use of polygraphy by various federal agencies. Although many issues were explored and several conclusions were drawn, none was more important than the finding that …
Los Angeles Times staff writer Charles Piller reports. Excerpt: The demand to cast an ever-wider net of security across the country has created a rush to embrace technologies that have demonstrated a sometimes staggering propensity for snaring the innocent. Since last year’s terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, hijackers, spies and …
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette staff writer Michael A. Fuoco reports. Excerpt: To tell the truth, polygraph examiners for Pittsburgh and Allegheny County police didn’t blink an eye last week when a National Research Council study found that lie detector tests administered annually to tens of thousands of federal employees hadn’t uncovered a single spy. But the local …
Liz Clarke reports on polygraphy for the Sunday Tribune. Excerpt: South Africa’s billion-rand security and insurance industries, as well as police and investigative services, could be forced to rethink lie-detecting strategies following an international probe into the reliability of polygraph testing. The polygraph, used extensively in South Africa to uncover criminal and fraudulent activities, was …
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy discusses the National Academy of Science’s polygraph report in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: NATIONAL ACADEMY ON POLYGRAPH TESTING The polygraph is a flawed instrument that is “intrinsically susceptible to producing erroneous results,” according to a new report of a National Academy of …
New York Times columnist William Safire comments on polygraphy, concluding: Because professional spies are trained to defeat the device; because pathological liars do not cause its needles to spike; and because our counterspies relax when a potential suspect “passes” — the system breeds the opposite of security. Here’s how I learned about that. In 1981 …
Sue Vorenberg reports for the Albuquerque Tribune. Excerpt: A new study saying polygraph tests are not accurate enough to screen government employees for potential security risks doesn’t surprise Al Zelicoff. But it doesn’t go far enough for him, either. Zelicoff, a senior scientist at Sandia National Laboratories and a leading critic of polygraph tests, said …
Ian Hoffman reports for the Oakland Tribune. Excerpt: Polygraph tests used by nearly every federal national-security agency as a screening tool will flag loyal workers as security risks and free actual spies from suspicion, a panel of top scientists reported Tuesday. Gathered by the National Research Council, scientists said the theory and research supporting polygraphy …
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) released the following press release: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Tuesday, October 8, 2002 Scientific Study Supports N.M. Senators’ Position that DOE Polygraph Policy Must be Changed WASHINGTON – In light of a new scientific study released today, U.S. Senators Jeff Bingaman and Pete Domenici are calling for the Department of Energy (DOE) …