Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
David Johnston and James Risen report for the New York Times. Excerpt: WASHINGTON, June 2 — Federal investigators have begun administering polygraph examinations to civilian employees at the Pentagon to determine who may have disclosed highly classified intelligence to Ahmad Chalabi, the Iraqi who authorities suspect turned the information over to Iran, government officials said …
Knight-Ridder reporters Warren P. Strobel and John Walcott report in an article published in the Contra Costa Times titled, “U.S. probes Chalabi’s ties to Iran” that U.S. Government officials allege that evidence suggests that Iraqi National Congress leader Ahmad Chalabi’s security chief, Arras Habib, is an Iranian spy who passed highly sensitive U.S. secrets to …
Richard Willing reports for USA Today. Excerpt: PHILADELPHIA — In a quiet corner of the University of Pennsylvania campus, professor Britton Chance is using near-infrared light to peek at lies as they form in the brains of student volunteers. Eventually, Chance hopes to see something else: a day when a device like his replaces the …
In an article titled, “Investigators open Guantanamo probe,” the Associated Press reports that the commander of the Camp Delta detention center at the Guantanamo Bay Naval Station is considering polygraph interrogations for personnel working at the facility. Excerpt: GUANTANAMO BAY NAVAL STATION, Cuba – Two dozen investigators began searching for possible security breaches yesterday at …
On Wednesday, 7 May 2003, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted former FBI supervisory special agent James J. Smith over his handling of confidential informant and accused Chinese double agent Katrina M. Leung. The indictment alleges Smith failed to report Leung’s refusal in 1991 to submit to a polygraph examination and instead represented …
Los Angeles Times staff writers Greg Krikorian and Scott Glover report. Excerpt: Years before Katrina Leung’s arrest for allegedly obtaining secret documents for China, officials at FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C., suggested that she submit to a polygraph test because of questions about her reliability, according to federal law enforcement officials. But Leung, who allegedly …
Ian Hoffman reports for the Oakland Tribune. Excerpt: Polygraph tests used by nearly every federal national-security agency as a screening tool will flag loyal workers as security risks and free actual spies from suspicion, a panel of top scientists reported Tuesday. Gathered by the National Research Council, scientists said the theory and research supporting polygraphy …
Dan Stober reports for the San Jose Mercury News. Excerpt: Lie-detector tests are useless in ferreting out spies and they have unfairly tainted innocent employees and job applicants, the nation’s leading researchers concluded in a report issued Tuesday. Prompted by the controversial case of Wen Ho Lee, who was accused of spying for China, the …
Washington Post staff writer Shankar Vedantam reports. Excerpt: Polygraph tests are ineffective in catching spies and have probably tarred thousands of innocent government employees and applicants with unwarranted suspicion, a top scientific panel has concluded. While lie detectors may have some utility in criminal investigations, where subjects can be tested on specific questions about a …
William J. Broad reports for the New York Times. Excerpt: In a report to the government, a panel of leading scientists said yesterday that polygraph testing was too flawed to use for security screening. The panel said lie-detector tests did a poor job of identifying spies or other national-security risks and were likely to produce …