Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy in Government Project reports in today’s Secrecy News electronic newsletter: SENATE EASES DOE POLYGRAPH POLICY Buried in the Defense Authorization Act approved by the Senate this week is language that would repeal the Department of Energy’s controversial polygraph policy and replace it with a more measured …
San Diego television station KGTV reports on the case of Ibrahim Nasser in a Yahoo! news story titled “Local Man Feels Threatened by FBI.” This short article is cited here in full: Lebanon-born U.S. citizen Ibrahim Nasser spent four hours talking with the FBI Monday. Nasser was first introduced to 10News viewers Sunday, when he …
Jim Wilson writes for Popular Mechanics. Excerpt: Lie detectors have never been popular. Criminals, obviously, don’t like them. The courts want nothing to do with them, and refuse to admit polygraph results as evidence. Police have mixed feelings–depending upon whether they are giving the test or taking it. Although the billion-dollar polygraph industry administers an …
Veteran polygrapher Theodore Paul Ponticelli writes in Justice: Denied — The Magazine for the Wrongly Convicted. Although a supporter of polygraphic interrogation, Ponticelli offers pointed criticism of the polygraph community. Excerpt: The American Polygraph Association (APA) in all appearance should be the watchdog of the industry, but it is no more than a trade association …
Birmingham News Washington correspondent Mary Orndorff reports. Excerpt: ALEXANDRIA, Va. The former Birmingham cab driver arrested the night of the terrorist attacks passed an FBI polygraph test and will not be charged with any crime related to the plot, his lawyer said Tuesday. Federal prosecutors in Virginia declined to comment on the status of the …
Denver Rocky Mountain News staff writer Lou Kilzer reports on the FBI’s polygraph interrogation of Khalid Al Draiby. Excerpt: A man who claims to be from Denver and was identified as a suspect in the Sept. 11 terror attack has passed an FBI polygraph test, his lawyer said Tuesday. Khalid Al Draibi, in jail near …
In an article titled, “Virginia man with link to hijacker ordered held without bond,” the Associated Press mentions that a Saudi man has been cleared of suspicion in the terrorist strikes of 11 September after passing a polygraph “test”: –A Saudi man arrested 13 miles south of Washington Dulles International Airport the night after the …
New York Daily News columnist Zev Chafets, in an article titled “How the Israelis Are Helping U.S. Fight Terror War,” asserts that Israeli counterintelligence has offered polygraph support to the FBI. Excerpt: …Shin Bet, Israel’s counterintelligence organization, has offered to provide the FBI with operatives who can speak Arabic and Farsi, and can administer and …
In an article entitled “Panel seeks to speed LAPD hiring,” David Zahniser of the Torrance, Calif. Daily Breeze reports on the 24 September 2001 meeting of the Los Angeles City Council’s Public Safety Committee. Excerpt: The committee … recommended hiring a private firm to handle the backlog of more than 500 job applicants waiting to …
In an article titled “Committee expands LAPD recruitment efforts,” MSNBC.com affiliate NBC4.TV reports on the LAPD’s polygraph woes. Excerpt: LOS ANGELES, Sept. 24 – The City Council’s Public Safety Committee recommended today that the city fund expanded officer recruitment efforts by the Los Angeles Police Department. The panel unanimously forwarded to the full council Deputy …