This short BBC News article is cited here in full: A lie detector test carried out on employees at Colombia’s Prosecutor General’s office has produced an embarrassing 20% failure rate. The FBI-administered test was designed to root out corruption, including involvement in drugs trafficking or guerrilla and paramilitary groups. Employees have complained that the test … Read more
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy comments in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: A REJOINDER ON POLYGRAPH It is not correct to say that no spy has ever been caught as a result of polygraph testing. John F. Sullivan, who served as a CIA polygrapher for 31 years, wrote … Read more
Jonathan Knight reports in the news section of the journal Nature, Vol. 428, p. 243. This short article is cited here in full: A national security expert says he was forced to resign last year because of his vocal opposition to the use of lie detectors at his nuclear weapons lab. Alan Zelicoff, formerly a … Read more
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy comments in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: THE POLYGRAPH VS. NATIONAL SECURITY As a technology for counterintelligence security screening, the polygraph has been a spectacular failure. It is hard to recall the last time that polygraph screening uncovered an actual spy, and easy … Read more
Niles Lathem reports for the New York Post. This short article is cited here in full: December 20, 2003 — WASHINGTON – Army counterintelligence agents are forcing many Iraqi employees of the U.S.-led civilian authority in Baghdad to submit to polygraph tests after a list of Saddam Hussein’s spies was discovered in his briefcase, The … Read more
IsraelNationalNews.com reports in a short article that is cited here in full: (IsraelNN.com) The Knesset Social Affairs & Health Committee is preparing two bills for a first reading in the Knesset, both aimed at making a compulsory polygraph exam for job applicants illegal. The bills are authored by MKs Yehiel Hazan (Likud) and Zahava Gal-On … Read more
Staff reporter Karyl Walker reports for the Jamaica Observer. THE police chief warned yesterday that cops seeking promotion to senior ranks or to assignments in sensitive areas will be subject to lie detector and other integrity tests as part of his programme to root corruption out of the constabulary. Earlier the Police Services Commission (PSC) … Read more
Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy comments in his Secrecy News e-mail publication: TELLER ON POLYGRAPH In the perennial dispute over the legitimacy of polygraph testing as a tool for security screening of government employees, the late physicist Edward Teller sided with his scientific colleagues at the national laboratories … Read more
The Albuquerque Tribune comments on polygraph screening in this editorial, cited here in full: Truth tests are flawed, so cut ’em out, DOE First, give the Department of Energy some credit. Then yank its chain – until it altogether stops using polygraph tests to try to find spies in its nuclear weapons program. The oft-troubled … Read more
Bob Park of the American Physical Society comments on Department of Energy polygraph policy in his weekly What’s New column: 2. POLYGRAPH ROULETTE: DOE HAS MASTERED “THE EXPECTATION GAME.”A two-year study by the National Academy of Sciences, “The Polygraph and Lie Detection,” showed polygraph testing to be less than worthless (WN 18 Apr 03). You … Read more