Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Hadar Horesh reports for Ha’aretz. Excerpt: Yitzhak Peterburg, the new president and CEO of Cellcom cellular phone company, has been so disturbed by recent leaks to the press of corporate doings, that he called senior executives together yesterday and told them to take a polygraph test to establish who was responsible for the leaks. Whoever …
This short article from Globes [online] is cited here in full: At a special management meeting called today, Cellcom president and CEO Dr. Yitzhak Peterburg announced that, due to a wave of information leaks, all Cellcom managers would be required to undergo a polygraph test if they wished to continue working at the company. Peterburg …
Los Angeles Metropolitan News-Enterprise associate editor Robert Greene reports in an article titled “Suit Against County, Pubic Defender for Poor Defense Reinstated”. Excerpt: A county public defender who established a policy of giving lie detector tests to every client and who allegedly assigned inexperienced lawyers to defend capital cases can be held liable under civil …
In an Albany, NY Times Union article titled, “In terror pursuit, a maze of leads,” staff writer Brendan Lyons mentions criticism of the FBI’s reliance on polygraphy. Excerpt: Shortly after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, a 34-year-old Jordanian immigrant who was being held in Albany County jail contacted authorities and claimed he had driven one …
The Washington Times published a letter by AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke in response to Ann Geracimos’ 9 Jan. 2003 article, “Interpreting a polygraph test.” Excerpt: “Interpreting a polygraph test” (Metropolitan, yesterday) only scratches the surface in explaining how polygraph tests are interpreted. The dirty little secret of the polygraph community is that the “test” depends …
Ann Geracimos reports for the Washington Times. Unfortunately, it seems that Mrs. Geracimos interviewed only polygraphers for this article, and in explaining to her how polygraph “tests” are interpreted, they apparently neglected to explain the trickery behind “control” questions. Excerpt: The word “polygraph” means “many writings” in graph form — a simple definition that gets …
The FBI’s nationwide dragnet for suspected terrorist infiltrators was based on an apparently bogus tip from accused Canadian forger Michael Hamdani. In a 3 January 2003 Washington Post article titled “Fake-ID Arrest Led to FBI Hunt,” staff writer John Mintz reported that U.S. and Canadian investigators had questioned Hamdani extensively using polygraph machines. U.S. President …
Shannon P. Duffy of The Legal Intelligencer reports. Excerpt: Requiring sex offenders to submit to random lie-detector tests during the probationary period after release from prison is not unconstitutional, but forbidding them from owning a computer may be going too far, a federal appeals court has ruled. In a pair of opinions handed down this …
Ranjani Ramaswamy reports for The Indian Express. Excerpt: Mumbai, January 7: WE wasted reams of newsprint wondering if Salman Khan had indeed been driving that night. His inebriation aside, how could it have been conclusively verified beyond any doubt that his was actually the hand on the steering wheel? The truth, concurs Dr C R …
Brendan I. Koerner writes for The Village Voice. Excerpt: Q: I’ve been asked by a potential employer to take a lie-detector test. There was a fair amount of pot smoking in my distant past, and I’m worried it’ll disqualify me from the job, which I desperately need. Aren’t there ways to beat the machine? Before …