Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
New York Times columnist William Safire comments on polygraphy, concluding: Because professional spies are trained to defeat the device; because pathological liars do not cause its needles to spike; and because our counterspies relax when a potential suspect “passes” — the system breeds the opposite of security. Here’s how I learned about that. In 1981 …
In a 13 August 2002 op-ed piece titled “The Anthrax Files,” New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof reported that anthrax investigation “person of interest” Dr. Steven J. Hatfill had “failed” three polygraph “tests” since January and declined a fourth. In an article titled “New Anthrax Clue, Same Hatfill Focus,” Hartford Courant staff writers Jack …
In a New York Times op-ed piece titled “The Anthrax Files,” columnist Nicholas D. Kristof writes that virologist Dr. Steven J. Hatfill “has…failed three successive polygraph examinations since January, and canceled plans for another polygraph exam two weeks ago.” Kristof does not state his source for this information. For discussion of the use of polygraphs …
Niles Lathem reports for the New York Post. Excerpt: WASHINGTON – A month before the first anthrax-laced letters were mailed, the bio-warfare expert now at the center of the probe failed a CIA-administered polygraph test over questions surrounding his mysterious past with a secret commando force in Rhodesia, The Post has learned. Dr. Steven Hatfill, …
Attorney Mark S. Zaid discusses polygraph policy in this op-ed column. Excerpt: In the wake of the FBI’s embarrassment at having one of its own caught spying for the Russians, former FBI director William Webster was appointed to head a commission to find out what went wrong. The commission concluded that lax security allowed Special …
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 …
John Geralds reports for vnunet.com. Excerpt: Two US research teams developing software that can recognise and analyse facial expressions have caught the attention of the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), as a potential tool to build a better lie detector. Professor Terry Sejnowski, who leads one of the research teams in the Computational Neurobiology Laboratory …
In a Reuters article about the status of women in the CIA, Tabassum Zakaria touches upon CIA polygraph policy, including alleged bias against women, and notes that a woman heads the CIA polygraph unit. Excerpt: Lawyers who handle lawsuits by female spies say while steps have been taken toward equality, there is still some distance …
In an article entitled “To Tell The Truth,” US News and World Report writers Kevin Whitelaw and David E. Kaplan put forth informed commentary on the dangers of security vetting by polygraph. Excerpt: … The task [of finding moles in the CIA] fell to [Edward] Curran, who sensed the nation’s premier spy agency was consumed …
In this Washington Post op-ed piece, former Washington Post and Wall Street Journal writer Ronald Kessler says that FBI Director Louis Freeh should be fired for not having required routine polygraph “testing” for FBI counterintelligence personnel. Mr. Kessler obviously doesn’t know about “the lie behind the lie detector.” Excerpt: Back in 1994, just after the …