Lafayette Polygraph Instruments Suffer Technical Problem

by

Marisa Taylor reports for McClatchy on a flaw affecting the Lafayette Instrument Company’s LX4000 polygraph system, which is widely used by federal, state, and local government agencies. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — Police departments and federal agencies across the country are using a type of polygraph despite evidence of a technical problem that could label truthful people … Read more

Enduring Freedom? ISAF Deletes Criticism of U.S. Government’s Handheld Lie Detector

by

On Tuesday, 14 May 2013, NATO’s International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan posted to its Facebook page a story about a program whereby U.S. forces in Afghanistan have been training Afghans in the use of a handheld “lie detector,” the Preliminary Credibility Assessment Screening System (PCASS)  developed by the National Center for Credibility Assessment … Read more

CIA Director Brennan Allegedly Threatened CIA Employees With Polygraphs on Benghazi

by

On 6 May 2013, Greta van Susteren told U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) that Fox News has information that CIA Director John Brennan has threatened Agency employees who might provide information to Congress regarding the 11 September 2012 raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya with polygraphs. Sen. Graham said he had heard the … Read more

Customs and Border Protection Internal Affairs Subject of Scathing DHS Privacy Report

by

AntiPolygraph.org has received a previously unpublished report of investigation (934 kb PDF) by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security Privacy Office into an information-sharing program operated by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office of Internal Affairs (CBP IA), headed by CBP Assistant Commissioner James F. Tomsheck.1 The report, by DHS Chief Privacy Officer Mary … Read more

Mexican Security Officials Balk at Being Polygraphed by American Counterparts, Ask: “So Do We Get to Polygraph You?”

by

The New York Times reports that Mexican security officials, who had previously been subjected to polygraph screening by U.S. polygraph operators, have declined to do so since the inauguration of Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto on 1 December 2012. Excerpt: MEXICO CITY — In their joint fight against drug traffickers, the United States and Mexico … Read more

Maryland Corrections Resorts to Mandatory Polygraphs in Wake of Corruption Investigation

by

Carrie Wells reports for the Baltimore Sun that on Friday, 26 April 2013, Maryland Secretary of Public Safety & Correctional Services Gary D. Maynard ordered that three senior administrators at the Baltimore City Detention Center submit to polygraph interrogations, and that more polygraphs may follow. Excerpt: Polygraph tests for three top officials at the Baltimore … Read more

Accused Cuban Agent Marta Rita Velázquez Allegedly Sought Polygraph Training from Cuban Intelligence Service

by

On 25 April 2013, the U.S. Department of Justice revealed the existence of a previously sealed indictment (455 kb PDF) against former U.S. Agency for International Development employee Marta Rita Velázquez, who is charged with a single count of conspiracy to commit espionage. The indictment alleges that it was Velázquez who recruited Ana Belen Montes, … Read more

Cuban Spy Nicolás Sirgado Passed CIA Polygraph Three Times

by

On 17 April 2013, Cuban intelligence officer Nicolás Alberto Sirgado Ros1 died at the age of 77 years according to a short notice published on 19 April by Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba. Cuban website CubaDebate published a lengthier profile of Sirgado, noting that he worked as a double agent … Read more

Vice President of Polygraph Manufacturer Limestone Technologies Charged with Sexual Assault

by

  Limestone Technologies vice president Tyler Buttle faces a 5 June 2013 pre-trial hearing on charges of assaulting with intent to rape a woman he met at a conference on sexual abuse. The conference, held 10-12 April 2013 in Marlborough, Massachusetts and co-hosted by the Massachusetts Adolescent Sex Offender Coalition and the Massachusetts Association for … Read more

Discredited Lawyer Promotes Discredited Lie Test

by
F. Lee Bailey
F. Lee Bailey

Disbarred criminal defense lawyer F. Lee Bailey will be the keynote speaker at a seminar jointly presented by the American Polygraph Association and the Maine Polygraph Association next Wednesday to Friday, 24-26 April 2013 in Saco, Maine. The stated purpose of the seminar is “to educate lawyers, investigators, therapists, probation and governmental officers and members of the judiciary on the current state of polygraph – often referred to by the misnomer ‘Lie Detector’ – usage in the United States.” Such individuals will be required to pay $250 for the privilege. It is perhaps fitting that a crooked lawyer would be selected as keynote speaker by practitioners of a crooked profession: polygraphy depends on the operator lying to and otherwise deceiving the person being “tested,” and the American Polygraph Association doesn’t think it’s an ethical problem that one of their past presidents, Ed Gelb, falsely passed himself off as a Ph.D. in marketing his polygraph services. Incidentally, Gelb and Bailey collaborated in a television show called “Lie Detector” (which Bailey avers is a misnomer) that aired from 1982-83.

Read more