Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Bill Dedman of MSNBC shines much-needed light on the U.S. military’s new “Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System” or PCASS. His on-line report, “New Anti-Terror Weapon: Hand-Held Lie Detector” is a must-read and includes documentation obtained under the Freedom of Information Act and a video segment with interviews and a demonstration conducted at the Defense Academy …
Although the U.S. National Academy of Sciences roundly rejected polygraph screening as pseudoscience in a landmark 2002 report, the U.S. Government continues to swear by it. Now the U.S. military in Iraq is soliciting bids to train Iraqi government agencies in the black art of lie detection, as Sharon Weinberger of Wired’s “Danger Blog” reports …
Washington Times reporters Bill Gertz and Jon Ward write that the State Department is resorting to the use of lie detectors in its investigation into improper access of the passport records of presidential candidates Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, and John McCain. But reliance on a pseudoscientific test that is easily passed using simple countermeasures suggests …
Charles O’Callaghan, a polygraph examiner and Nebraska State Patrol investigator, has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska by Matthew Livers, from whom investigators coerced a false confession after an allegedly failed polygraph examination conducted by O’Callaghan, who is also a member …
Sam Clay of the Fairfax County (Virginia) Public Library interviews John F. Sullivan, author of Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner, in a podcast released on Friday, 7 March 2008. The interview may be either listened to on-line or downloaded as an MP3 file. For discussion of Sullivan’s book and experience, see the message …
AntiPolygraph.org’s George Maschke has prepared the following commentary on the upcoming polygraph examination of Larry Sinclair, who claims (without evidence to date) that in 1999 he twice performed oral sex on Barack Obama and observed him use crack cocaine. Update (23 Feb 2008): Mr. Sinclair was polygraphed yesterday (Friday, 22 Feb.), evidently in Los Angeles, …
On 18 January 2008, a Mr. Larry Sinclair of Duluth, Minnesota posted to YouTube a video statement entitled “OBAMA’S LIMO SEX & DRUG PARTY” in which he made sensational allegations against Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama and challenged him to a polygraph showdown. Mr. Sinclair has to date presented no evidence to corroborate his claims. …
Scott Michels reports for ABC News in “Is the Truth Worth $500,000?”: Is the Truth Worth $500,000? ‘Truth’ or Fiction? Polygraph Association Questions New Reality Show By SCOTT MICHELS Dec. 13, 2007— Hook someone up to a lie detector. Ask personal questions. Watch the person squirm. That’s the premise of the new Fox TV reality …
MSNBC chief science and health correspondent Dr. Robert Bazell comments on the U.S. Government’s persistent but misplaced reliance on polygraphy in his “Second Opinion” column: Shedding light on lies — and lie detectors Polygraphs persist despite failing science’s truth test By Robert Bazell Chief science and health correspondent updated 9:08 a.m. ET Dec. 4, 2007 …
In “Polygraph Tests Raise Questions,” retired FBI special agent and scientist Dr. Drew Richardson comments for the Staunton, Virginia News Leader: I have previously written about the tools and trade of national security practice in this column. Topics have included the lack of validity of polygraphic lie detection, the need for recorded interviews and interrogations, …