Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
AntiPolygraph.org’s George Maschke comments on CIA pre-employment polygraph screening in a letter to the editor of The Dartmouth, Dartmouth College’s independent student newspaper. This short letter is cited here in full: To the Editor: Tara Kyle wrote about a resurgence in interest in the CIA following the events of Sept. 11 (“CIA gets bombarded with …
Aldrin Brown of the Orange County Register reports on the case of Palestinian-American Tawfiq Mohamad Mousa in an article titled “O.C. man quizzed in federal probe.” Excerpt: A Palestinian-born Anaheim businessman jailed in Santa Ana on federal charges could be among the first known U.S. citizens targeted by the FBI’s expanding terrorism investigation, his attorney …
New York Times correspondent David Rohde, in an article titled, “In 2 Abandoned Kabul Houses, Some Hints of Al Qaeda Presence,” reports that documents seized in two Kabul houses formerly used by members of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda organization include Arabic language instructions on how to pass lie detector tests. With the FBI making …
Staff writer Jim Houston of the Columbus, Georgia Ledger-Enquirer reports on a lawsuit brought by a woman who was arrested by her employer after failing a polygraph “test.” Excerpt: A Phenix City woman whose ex-employer swore out a warrant charging her with theft won a $90,000 verdict Wednesday from a Muscogee County Superior Court jury. …
Associated Press correspondent Ken Thomas reports in an article published in the Naples Daily News. Excerpt: MIAMI — Former American League MVP Jose Canseco plans to hook himself up to a polygraph machine next week in front of reporters to prove his innocence in a Halloween night scuffle at a local night club. Canseco, a …
Ronald Bailey reports for Reason magazine’s ReasonOnline website. Excerpt: “It’s happening much faster than I thought it would,” says James Halperin, author of the 1996 science fiction novel The Truth Machine. The novel describes how humanity would react to the invention of an infallible lie detector in the year 2024. “When I was talking about …
In an article titled “Whistle-blower finally gets trial,” Rosanna Ruiz of the Houston Chronicle reports on the case of Houston Police Department officer Paulino Zavala. Excerpt: A former Houston narcotics officer’s whistle-blower lawsuit will go to trial today after lingering in court for four years and benefiting from two appellate rulings that kept it from …
Washington Post correspondent Shankar Vedantam reports in this page A02 article. Excerpt: Telling a lie produces telltale changes in the brain, researchers announced yesterday at a neuroscience conference in San Diego. Brain scans of volunteers asked to tell lies showed changes as the subjects tried to suppress what they knew was true. The result might …
Mark Henderson, science correspondent for The Times of London, reports on the use of magnetic resonance scans to detect concealed knowledge. Excerpt: PATTERNS of brain activity that betray whether a person is lying have been identified, paving the way for brain scans in criminal investigations. Scientists in the United States have discovered that several parts …
Madison Taylor of the Jacksonville Daily News comments on Onslow County, North Carolina Commissioner Jack Bright’s proposal to give lie detector “tests” to Onslow County Board of Health employees who are the subject of complaints from the public. (For more regarding Jack Bright’s well-intentioned but ill-conceived proposal, see William Davis’ 8 November Jacksonville Daily News …