Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
Lenny Savino of the Knight Ridder Washington bureau reports. Excerpt: WASHINGTON – “Less than 25” top FBI officials and other personnel in sensitive positions failed to pass polygraph exams initiated in the wake of the Robert Hanssen spy case, according to senior bureau officials. Failure to pass could mean either that the findings were inconclusive …
New York Times correspondents James Risen and Raymond Bonner report. Excerpt: WASHINGTON, July 20 — The Federal Bureau of Investigation dismissed as useless today a privately administered polygraph examination taken by Representative Gary A. Condit in connection with the disappearance of Chandra Ann Levy. In a statement, the F.B.I. said there was “no way to …
Today’s Washington Post editorial, “Mr. Hanssen’s Plea” carries with it an implicit endorsement of polygraph screening. Excerpt (emphasis added): Fixing…vulnerabilities [in FBI security procedures] is the task ahead. No system can ensure perfect security. There will be smart and unscrupulous would-be spies at an organization the size of the bureau who find cracks to slip …
In an article titled “Plea Bargain is Planned in FBI Spy Case,” Washington Post staff writers Brooke A. Masters and Dan Eggen report that Robert P. Hanssen will plead guilty to espionage charges. Excerpt: The government has dropped its demand for the death penalty and Hanssen, 57, has agreed to sit for extensive debriefings and …
Diana Ray reports in the 2-9 June 2001 issue of Insight magazine. Excerpt: The FBI is requiring employees to undergo increased polygraph testing as a result of security lapses, but cool liars are able to evade detection by the simple machines. Polygraph testing did not keep Aldrich H. Ames from selling CIA secrets to the …
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 …
Kevin Johnson reports for USA Today. Excerpt: WASHINGTON — FBI Director Louis Freeh and other top bureau leaders will take polygraph tests as part of a security crackdown that has followed the arrest of alleged spy Robert Hanssen, officials said Thursday. Freeh will answer standard questions about his access to classified information. Similar questions are …
The Associated Press reports. Excerpt: WASHINGTON (AP) – FBI Director Louis Freeh and his senior deputies will take lie-detector tests as part of stepped-up security procedures following the arrest of a veteran FBI agent charged with spying for Moscow over a period of 15 years. “The director always includes himself in whatever policy applies to …
This Huntsville Times editorial warns of the danger of substituting polygraphy for effective counterintelligence reform. Excerpt: A kid takes a gun to school and shoots some classmates. So parents and administrators respond by banning baggy pants and nose rings. A career FBI agent is arrested and charged with spying for the Soviet Union and then …
Dan Verton reports in Computerworld that FBI computer systems specialists have been targeted for polygraph “testing.” Excerpt: (March 26, 2001) The FBI has quietly expanded its use of the polygraph to cover systems administrators and all other employees with access to sensitive computer networks and databases, marking the first time that government IT specialists have …