Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy in Government Project reports in today’s Secrecy News electronic newsletter: ANNUAL POLYGRAPH REPORT PUBLISHED The Department of Defense this week released its Annual Polygraph Report for 2001, reaffirming the Department’s commitment to polygraph testing as an instrument of counterintelligence and criminal investigations as well as for … Read more
Thomas J. Gibbons, Jr., reports for the Philadelphia Inquirer. Excerpt: In a major policy shift, candidates for the Philadelphia Police Department will no longer have to pass a lie-detector test to be accepted to the force, according to a directive from Police Commissioner Sylvester M. Johnson. The order takes effect immediately, affecting a new list … Read more
Gloria Campisi reports for the Philadelphia Daily News. Excerpt: The Philadelphia Police Department is scrapping the polygraph test as a hiring tool. Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said yesterday more intensive background checks would replace the lie detector test, which has been in use here for more than 20 years. The action was hailed by a … Read more
In an article titled, “FBI seeks to rebuild its image,” Chris Mondics of the Philadelphia Inquirer Washington bureau reports that Roger L. Trott, chief of the FBI’s agent training unit, asserts that nearly half of FBI agent applicants who pass preliminary tests don’t pass the polygraph. Excerpt: …The bureau expects to hire only about 5 … Read more
Bob Park of the American Physical Society comments on polygraphy in the 19 April 2002 installment of his weekly column, “What’s New”: 4. LIE DETECTORS: HAS THE POLYGRAPH EVER UNCOVERED A SPY? WN believes it has not (WN 5 Apr 02). If it has, the government has never acknowledged the fact. The National Academy of … Read more
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 … Read more
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel blasts the FBI’s plans for more lie detector “testing” in this editorial. Excerpt: The bureau’s plan to expand the use of lie detector tests is just plain unprofessional and unscientific. The fact is, they are notoriously unreliable. Aldrich Ames, the CIA agent who in 1994 admitted to spying for Russia, passed … Read more
Associated Press correspondent Jesse J. Holland reports. Excerpt: April 9, 2002 | WASHINGTON (AP) — While two U.S. citizens have been arrested for espionage since July, increased FBI lie detector tests have uncovered several lesser security transgressions among FBI employees, the agency’s security chief said Tuesday. None of the information gained from the 700 polygraph … Read more
The Commission for the Review of FBI Security Programs, better known as the Webster Commission, has delivered its report to the Attorney General, and it may now be downloaded as a 1.14 MB Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file from the U.S. Department of Justice website at: http://www.usdoj.gov/05publications/websterreport.pdf Substantive discussion of polygraph policy begins at p. 67 … Read more
Kansas City Star correspondent Kevin Murphy reports. Excerpt: WASHINGTON – All but a few of 700 FBI agents and employees passed lie detector tests as part of an internal security overhaul at the bureau, Director Robert Mueller said Wednesday. Mueller outlined for reporters the FBI’s broad plan for preventing security lapses, such as those that … Read more