Michael Evans of the London Times reports in a paywalled article titled “Pete Hegseth’s Pentagon descends into fear, loathing and lie detectors.” Excerpt: Pentagon officials are living “in fear” of being forced to take polygraph tests to prove they are not leaking sensitive information to the media. An email warning of the potential use of … Read more
Gabe Cohen reports for CNN in a 12 April 2025 article titled, “Dozens of DHS staffers, including top FEMA officials, given lie detector tests over alleged leaks.” Excerpt: The Department of Homeland Security has administered lie detector tests to about 50 staffers in recent weeks, including FEMA’s acting administrator and roughly a dozen officials at … Read more
Thomas Frank reports for Politico that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) subjected Cameron Hamilton, the acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to a polygraph “test” in connection with a leak investigation. In this instance, it appears that no information that could credibly be construed to be properly classified had in fact … Read more
Following a Thursday, 20 March 2025 report by the New York Times that “[t]he Pentagon was scheduled on Friday to brief Elon Musk on the U.S. military’s plan for any war that might break out with China,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joseph R. “Joe” Kasper on Friday, 21 March signed a … Read more
As noted by Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, “the Senate Intelligence Committee’s markup of the 2013 intelligence authorization bill includes 12 provisions that are intended to combat unauthorized disclosures of classified information.” Among these provisions is a requirement that within 120 days of enactment, the Director of National … Read more
Dana Liebelson and Adam Zagorin of the Project on Government Oversight report on Director of National Intelligence James R. Clapper’s recent decision to use polygraphs in an attempt to detect and deter media leaks. AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke is among those interviewed for this article.
On 25 June 2012, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper announced (PDF) that he is “mandating that a question related to unauthorized disclosure of classified information be added to the counterintelligence polygraph used by all intelligence agencies that administer the examination (CIA, DIA, DOE, FBI, NGA, NRO, and NSA).” Although Clapper’s announcement does not specify what … Read more
It appears that CIA officer Mary McCarthy was not the source of Washington Post reporter Dana Priest’s information on the CIA’s secret prisons. In “Dismissed CIA Officer Denies Leak Role,” Post staff writers R. Jeffrey Smith and Dafna Linzer report that she denies it, and the CIA is not alleging it. Excerpt: A lawyer representing … Read more
In “Moves Signal Tighter Secrecy Within C.I.A.,” New York Times reporters Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti write that CIA Inspector General John L. Helgerson is among the employees polygraphed in the Agency’s ongoing leak hunt. Excerpt: WASHINGTON, April 23 — The crackdown on leaks at the Central Intelligence Agency that led to the dismissal of … Read more
While there is broad agreement amongst scientists that polygraph “testing” has no scientific basis, and the National Academy of Sciences has recently confirmed that polygraph screening is completely invalid, there is no question that the polygraph can be useful for getting admissions from those who can still be convinced that the polygrapher can see their … Read more