Original reporting and commentary about polygraphs, voice stress analyzers, and other purported "lie detectors."
On 12 December 2001, CBS 60 Minutes II aired an investigative report on polygraph screening. Produced by Shawn Efran and reported by Scott Pelley, the report takes an in-depth look at the U.S. Government’s misplaced reliance on polygraph screening. The concerns raised in this report remain as valid today as they were five years ago. …
The FBI obfuscates and evades in a written response to questions posed by Senator Charles Grassley (R-IA) regarding the Bureau’s polygraph screening program. Senator Grassley’s questions, and the FBI’s responses, appear at pp. 47-50 of a document submitted to the Senate Judiciary Committee on 30 November 2006 and made available by the Federation of American …
In an e-mail message posted to LANL: The Corporate Story, an anonymous physics undergrad has written about a recent (October, 2006) CIA polygraph screening examination administered in connection with his application for a summer 2007 internship.
Brad Lee Holian, a Laboratory Associate at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) and fellow of the American Physical Society, is organizing employee resistance against planned random polygraph and drug screening at the lab. Holian, who has worked as a theoretical physicist at LANL for more than thirty years, has publicized his proposal via the blog …
The Federation of American Scientists has obtained a copy of U.S. Army Regulation 381-10 (U.S. Army Intelligence Activities) dated 22 November 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act. Included in a list of “Commonly Reported Questionable Intelligence Activities” at section 15-4, para. d.3, is the following: Coaching a source or subject of an investigation prior …
Paul Bedard of U.S. News & World Report comments in his Washington Whispers column: “Oh, no you won’t” is the reaction of cops and other first responders to an almost rude FBI decision to ask its Joint Terrorism Task Force members to take a lie detector test. To the FBI, it’s a smart move: Since …
Dr. Alan P. Zelicoff, M.D. comments on the U.S. Department of Energy’s recent decision to scale back its polygraph screening program in an Albuquerque Journal op-ed article titled, “DOE Quietly Backs Away from Voodoo of Polygraphs.” In 2003, Dr. Zelicoff was forced out of his job at Sandia National Laboratories because his work to disprove …
Jeff Stein, Congressional Quarterly’s national security editor, reports on the U.S. Department of Justice’s recently released report, “Use of Polygraph Examinations in the Department of Justice” (1 mb PDF). Excerpt: The FBI and three other Justice Department components are conducting over 16,000 polygraph tests a year, even though they have no uniform standards for administering …
Los Angeles Chief of Police William J. Bratton this week stated that 40% of LAPD applicants who are disqualified are eliminated because of the polygraph. Bratton spoke on the 17 April 2006 installment of 89.3 KPCC radio’s Patt Morrison show, which features a regular “Ask the Chief” session in which Chief Bratton addresses questions by …
Rich Chang reports for the Taipei Times. Excerpt: All intelligence officials will be subjected to polygraph tests in future in a bid to root out spies, the Ministry of National Defense (MND) announced yesterday. Legislators said they support the ministry’s policy, but that they hoped the ministry would take human rights into consideration when implementing …