Polygraph

Polygraph Showdown in Nevada?

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The Los Angeles Times reports that Representative Jim Gibbons (R-NV), who is running for governor in Nevada, is willing to take a polygraph test to prove that he did not make a sexual advance against cocktail waitress Chrissy Mazzeo, who had earlier voiced her willingness to take a polygraph test to prove the truthfulness of … Read more

DOE Quietly Backs Away from Voodoo of Polygraphs

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Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D. comments on the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent decision to scale back its polygraph screening program in an Albuquerque Journal op-ed article titled, “DOE Quietly Backs Away from Voodoo of Polygraphs.” In 2003, Dr. Zelicoff was forced out of his job at Sandia National Laboratories because his work to disprove … Read more

Israeli Military Plans Polygraph Jihad

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Amos Harel reports for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz in an article tiled, “IDF Officers to Get Polygraphs Over War Leaks”: Dozens of officers will be questioned with a lie detector about their contacts with journalists, as part of a probe of leaks to the media during the recent Lebanon war. Military Advocate General Brigadier Avihai … Read more

Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) Rejects Polygraphs

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In “Lie detectors to be left out of the spy game,” Simon Kearney reports for The Australian on the decision by that country’s intelligence service to reject polygraph screening: Lie detectors to be left out of the spy game Simon KearneyOctober 20, 2006 AUSTRALIAN spy agencies have abandoned plans to introduce lie-detector tests after a … Read more

The Truth About the Lie Detector

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Andrew Stephen skewers polygraphy in this feature article published in the 16 October 2006 issue of the British periodical, the New Statesman:

The truth about the lie detector
Features
Andrew Stephen
Monday 16th October 2006

Critics claim that polygraph testing is as credible as the tooth fairy or witchcraft. Yet the US government still relies on it to identify terrorists and vet FBI agents. Andrew Stephen on America’s alarming love affair with junk science

Did ex-Representative Mark Foley have sex with teenage male congressional pages? Was Wen Ho Lee, an American nuclear scientist, guilty of espionage by passing nuclear secrets to the Chinese? Did John Mark Karr kill six-year-old JonBenet Ramsey? Was the British nanny Louise Woodward guilty of the involuntary manslaughter of the baby in her care? Was Aldrich Ames, a senior CIA official in charge of analysing Soviet intelligence, actually a Soviet double agent? Was Leandro Aragoncillo, an FBI analyst with top-secret clearance who was based in the White House under Vice-Presidents Gore and Cheney, also a spy? What about Dr Ignatz Theodor Griebl, a Nazi ringleader who fled New York on the SS Bremen in 1938?

I do not care about Foley, or Karr – who was innocent of JonBenet Ramsey’s murder, as it turned out – but all the other cases have a thread in common. They illustrate a century-old American fallacy which, at long last, is beginning to crumble: that polygraph (aka lie-detector) tests actually work. Evidence is mounting that, far from being the infallible tools of world-beating American investigative procedures that Hollywood would have us believe, they have actually been responsible for countless miscarriages of justice and have ruined lives.

Ames, for example, sailed through three polygraphs before the CIA discovered that he was actually one of the worst US traitors in history. Woodward “passed” one but was then convicted on other evidence. Lee both “failed” and “passed” polygraphs, resulting in him being imprisoned and then released before being awarded $1.65m in damages by the federal government. Aragoncillo “passed” a pre-employment FBI polygraph but pleaded guilty to espionage in May. Griebl “passed” an FBI polygraph test and promptly returned to Hitler’s side.

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More on New Energy Department Polygraph Policy

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Roger Snodgrass of the Los Alamos, New Mexico Monitor reports on the newly revised Department of Energy polygraph policy in an 11 October 2006 article titled “DOE Curbs Polygraphs”: The Department of Energy has published a new final rule for how it will use polygraph tests, claiming it will “significantly” reduce the numbers of people … Read more

Energy Department to Reduce Number of Employees Polygraphed

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In his Secrecy News newsletter & blog, Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Sciences publishes news and commentary regarding the Department of Energy’s decision, published in the Federal Register, to reduce the number of employees subjected to polygraph screening. See “Energy Department Will Significantly Reduce Polygraph Testing.” However, while the new polygraph policy may … Read more

Federal Polygraph Lawsuit Dismissed

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On 29 September 2006, United States District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan granted summary judgment (90 kb PDF) to the defendants in Croddy, et al. v. FBI et al. (Civil Action No. 00-651 [EGS]), dismissing the lawsuit which challenged the FBI’s and U.S. Secret Services’ pre-employment polygraph policies whereby applicants are denied employment based solely on … Read more

Justice Report: Standards Lacking on “Lie Detector” Tests

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Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly’s national security editor, reports on the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently released report, “Use of Polygraph Examinations in the Department of Justice” (1 mb PDF). Excerpt: The FBI and three other Justice Department components are conducting over 16,000 polygraph tests a year, even though they have no uniform standards for administering … Read more