Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Eric Lichtblau reports for the New York Times: WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 – Justice Department investigators have sought to have senior federal prosecutors take polygraph examinations in an effort to determine who leaked the name of a confidential informant in a Detroit terrorism case that has become a major embarrassment for the department, officials said Friday. …
The Sydney Morning Herald has published the following Australian Associated Press story: Prime Minister John Howard turned down a lie detector test to determine if he was telling the truth over the children overboard affair. But the man who claims he told Mr Howard there were doubts about allegations of refugees throwing children overboard from …
Bill Rankin of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports: Facing the prospect of a federal corruption indictment, former Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell took the offensive Friday with the announcement he had passed a polygraph examination. The examination, which cost Campbell $600, was administered Friday by a former director of the FBI’s polygraph unit who is now a …
Syndicated columnist Steve Chapman comments in an article published by the Prescott, Arizona Daily Courier: In May 1978, police arrested four Chicago-area men on charges of murdering a suburban man and raping and murdering his fiancée. All of the suspects said they were innocent, but no real doubt existed about their guilt: Three of them, …
North County Times staff writer Tim Mayer reports in an article titled, “Fogelstrom said investigators deceived them” that the Riverside County (California) Sheriff’s Department conducted a coercive polygraph examination of a minor under false pretenses. Excerpt: CARLSBAD —- The father of the teenage companion of 17-year-old Eric Sears —- who was found dead in Joshua …
The BBC reports: Convicted paedophiles could be forced to take lie detector tests to ensure they stay away from children, under plans by Home Secretary David Blunkett. He wants compulsory testing in Sussex, Northumberland and the West Midlands – currently piloting voluntary tests. Probation officers would ask offenders whether they had had contact with children …
Home affairs editor Alan Travis reports for the Guardian. Home Office plans to introduce compulsory lie detector tests to ensure that convicted paedophiles do not offend again are worrying cabinet members. The home secretary, David Blunkett, has admitted to his cabinet colleagues that the plans “are not without controversy” and is seeking legal clearance from …
Hartford Courant staff writer Tracy Gordon Fox reports. Excerpt: The lawsuit Adrienne LaMorte brought against the Connecticut State Police over her removal from the department’s polygraph unit ended in June when she received a fat check for $216,000. But the ripples the case generated within state law enforcement circles are still being felt, with top …
The Associated Press reports in this article published on AZCentral.com: MEXICO CITY – Mexico’s governmental National Human Rights Commission recommended Sunday that police, government agencies and investigators not use tests involving polygraphs, also known as lie detector tests. The commission said the tests “violate human rights” because they represent an invasion of privacy and their …
In an article titled, “Entering unknown territory,” Los Alamos Monitor assistant editor Roger Snodgrass confirms that some employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory have been ordered to undergo polygraph “testing” as the Deparment of Energy investigates the disappearance of two removable data storage devices. Excerpt: According to sources, the investigation of lost computer recording data …