Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Oakland Tribune staff writer Ian Hoffman reports. Excerpt: Hundreds of nuclear weapons scientists and intelligence analysts will still be strapped to the polygraph machine for the time being, despite a recent report concluding that polygraphs miss spies and tar the innocent as security risks. The U.S. Energy Department is racing to change its routine polygraph …
New York Times correspondent Benjamin Weiser reports. Excerpt: Release to the public of a report due this week on how the F.B.I. obtained a confession from an innocent Egyptian student who was detained in connection with the attack on the World Trade Center could be delayed as a result of an escalating dispute between prosecutors …
Darren Goodsir, Matthew Moore and Tom Allard report for the Sydney Morning Herald. Excerpt: Indonesian police have conducted lie-detector tests on three Indonesian men being treated as “possible suspects” in the Bali bombing case. In interviews with the Herald yesterday, Indonesian experts attached to the police scientific headquarters in Denpasar, PusLab For, confirmed they had …
In a puff piece on Senator Richard Shelby (R-AL) titled “Shelby’s doubts drove inquiry”, St. Petersburg Times staff writer Mary Jacoby notes that it was Senator Shelby who was behind the sacking of L. Britt Snider as head of the joint congressional inquiry into the intelligence failings surrounding the events of 11 September 2001. Snider …
Julian Coman reports for The Telegraph of London. Excerpt: One of America’s most famous detection devices may be consigned to the scrapheap after being used in thousands of trials and making countless appearances in Hollywood films. The lie-detector, or polygraph test, is routinely used by United States police forces, the FBI, the Pentagon and other …
Texas A&M sophomore Melissa Fried comments on polygraphy in this opinion article. Excerpt: The U.S. Defense and Intelligence communities have taken a beating during the past few months due to their inconstant state of efficiency – sometimes they know what they are doing, sometimes they do not. Regardless of the criticism, the American public still …
Gregg Jarrett, in for Dan Abrams, spoke with Professor David Faigman, a member of the National Academy of Sciences polygraph review panel and American Polygraph Association president Dan Sosnowski. The following is an excerpt from the program transcript: [GREGG] JARRETT: When it comes to telling the truth, it seems lie detectors flunk the test. That’s …
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 …