Justice Report: Standards Lacking on “Lie Detector” Tests

Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly’s national security editor, reports on the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently released report, “Use of Polygraph Examinations in the Department of Justice” (1 mb PDF). Excerpt: The FBI and three other Justice Department components are conducting over 16,000 polygraph tests a year, even though they have no uniform standards for administering …

Senate Report Disputes Press Accounts of CIA Polygraph of Iraqi Informant

As mentioned by Washington Post staff writer Walter Pincus in a recent article, the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence‘s recently released report, The Use by the Intelligence Community of Information Provided by the Iraqi National Congress (9.5 mb PDF), documents three intelligence sources who provided unreliable information but nonetheless passed DIA polygraph screening examinations. …

Iraqi Fabricators Passed DIA Polygraph

On Saturday, 9 September 2006, Washington Post staff writer Walter Pincus reported on the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence’s recently released review of pre-war intelligence on Iraq in an article titled, “Report Details Errors Before War.” Excerpt: The long-awaited Senate Intelligence Committee report released yesterday sheds new light on why U.S. intelligence agencies provided …

American Polygraph Association Warns Against Reliance on Polygraph Results

In its new Model Policy for Law Enforcement Pre-Employment Screening Examinations, in defiance of law enforcement agencies across the country that disqualify applicants based on nothing more than failure to “pass” a pre-employment polygraph examination, the American Polygraph Association (APA) holds, at para. 3.12.1.3, “The decision to hire, or not to hire an applicant, should …

Of Rights, Risks, and Relocations

Stockton Record staff writer Michael Fitzgerald comments on the U.S. Government’s denial of entry to the United States of two citizens for declining to submit to FBI interrogation and polygraph “testing.” Excerpt: I always wondered how white Americans could have stood by during World War II and allowed authorities to drag patriotic Japanese-Americans off to …

American Citizens Denied Entry to U.S. for Refusing FBI Polygraph

Two United States citizens have been denied re-entry to the United States for exercising their constitutional right to refuse to submit to FBI interrogation and polygraph “testing.” UPI Homeland and National Security Editor Shaun Waterman reports in part: WASHINGTON, Aug. 28 (UPI) — A Californian father and son are in legal limbo in Pakistan after …

Michigan State Police Polygrapher Who Wrongly Accused Innocent Woman Named

The Michigan State Police polygraph operator who falsely accused Lisa Hansen of Grand Rapids of deception regarding the alleged embezzlement of funds from her employer has been identified as Sergeant Ben Escalante. On 23 August 2006, Grand Rapids WZZM 13 News reported: The Muskegon based public interest group Innocent, today called for a public apology …

Suspect Detection Systems’ Cogito Passenger Screening Trial at Knoxville Airport

The Transportation Safety Administration conducted a trial run of Suspect Detection Systems’ polygraph-derived passenger screening system, dubbed “Cogito,” at the Knoxville airport (presumably McGhee Tyson Airport), the Wall Street Journal reported Monday, 14 August in an article by Jonathan Karp and Laura Meckler titled, “Which Travelers Have ‘Hostile Intent’? Biometric Device May Have the Answer.” …