Customs and Border Protection Polygraph Screening: A Critical Commentary on the Center for Investigative Journalism’s Recent Reporting

On 4 April 2013, the Center for Investigative Reporting published two articles by Andrew Becker on U.S. Customs and Border Patrol’s pre-employment polygraph screening program. The first, which has garnered considerable attention and was featured on Tina Brown’s The Daily Beast, is “During polygraphs, border agency applicants admit to rape, kidnapping.” ((The Daily Beast ran …

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U.S. Customs and Border Protection Reveals Criminal Investigation Into Polygraph Countermeasure Training

A document (5.4 mb PDF) released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) reveals the existence of a criminal investigation into polygraph countermeasure training received by ten CBP applicants for employment. The document, first obtained by the Center for Investigative Reporting, is a summary of significant admissions obtained during polygraph examinations. The criminal investigation is …

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U.S. Embassy in Yemen Reportedly Forces Local Employees to Submit to Polygraph “Testing”

The Arabic-language website Nashwan News reports that the U.S. embassy in Sana’a, Yemen is forcing all locally hired staff to undergo polygraph interrogations, and that any who fail to pass will be terminated. The policy has reportedly had a severely negative effect on employee morale, with some submitting their resignations in protest. AntiPolygraph.org has e-mailed …

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Federal Lawsuit Filed Against American Polygraph Association

On Monday, 25 March 2013, the School of Polygraph Science in Phoenix, Arizona filed suit in federal court against the American Polygraph Association (APA) and its officers. The complaint stems from the APA’s revocation of the school’s accreditation on 29 January 2013 following an unannounced inspection on 5-6 November 2012. The School alleges libel, slander, …

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Can Polygraphs Really Keep Racists Out of Law Enforcement?

News organizations across America yesterday carried an Associated Press story about how the police chief of a small town in Tennessee was using polygraphs to “weed out racists” from the hiring process: Police Chief’s Polygraph Targets Racist Applicants By SHEILA BURKE Associated Press COOPERTOWN, Tenn. March 8, 2013 (AP) A police chief hired to rebuild …

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Do Polygraphs Tell the Truth?

Conor McKeever, writing for Imperial College, London’s science magazine, I, Science, asks the question and in a concise, well-researched article, answers it with a resounding “no,” concluding: “It’s time to expose the fact that lie detectors do not actually ‘tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth’ but only someone’s interpretation of …

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Russia Today on Polygraph Screening in the United States

Marina Portnaya of Russia Today (RT) reports on polygraph screening by the federal government of the United States. Those interviewed include retired CIA polygraph examiner John Sullivan, McClatchy reporter Marisa Taylor, and Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed the National Research Council’s Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph: Ironically, the Russian interior ministry …

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