{"id":316,"date":"2009-07-09T20:08:11","date_gmt":"2009-07-10T00:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/?p=316"},"modified":"2009-07-09T20:20:06","modified_gmt":"2009-07-10T00:20:06","slug":"representative-darrell-issa-proposes-polygraph-screening-for-congress","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/09\/representative-darrell-issa-proposes-polygraph-screening-for-congress\/","title":{"rendered":"Representative Darrell Issa Proposes Polygraph Screening for Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry\">\n<figure id=\"attachment_319\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-319\" style=\"width: 98px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-319\" title=\"congressmanissa\" src=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/congressmanissa.jpg\" alt=\"Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA)\" width=\"98\" height=\"125\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-319\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Rep. Darrell Issa<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Rep. <a title=\"Rep. Darrell Issa\" href=\"http:\/\/issa.house.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\">Darrell Issa<\/a> (R-CA) has proposed polygraph screening for members of Congress who receive CIA briefings. Susan Crabtree <a title=\"Issa proposes polygraphs for CIA-briefed lawmakers\" href=\"http:\/\/thehill.com\/leading-the-news\/issa-proposes-polygraphs-for-cia-briefed-lawmakers-2009-07-09.html\" target=\"_blank\">reports<\/a> for <em>The Hill:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants fellow lawmakers who receive classified CIA briefings to submit to polygraph tests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe should have a very high standard for those who are briefed by CIA \u2014 to make sure the information isn\u2019t compromised and [lawmakers] who are briefed are telling the truth about what they\u2019ve been told,\u201d he said. \u201cFact-finding and oversight is only as good as the group of people able to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<br \/>\nIssa said he first believed all members of Congress with oversight over the CIA should submit to polygraph tests during former Rep. Randy &#8220;Duke&#8221; Cunningham\u2019s (R-Calif.) bribery scandal that ultimately landed him in jail. Issa, the ranking member on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, won a seat on the Intelligence panel after Cunningham resigned his seat in Congress and pleaded guilty to taking $2 million in bribes in a criminal conspiracy involving at least three defense contractors.<\/p>\n<p>Rep. Pete Hoekstra (R-Mich.), the ranking member on Intelligence, quickly shot down the idea of forcing members to submit to polygraph tests, arguing that constitutional separation-of-powers protections would prevent the FBI or the CIA from administering the test to federal lawmakers. Hoesktra, an outspoken defender of the agency, had spent weeks hammering Pelosi over her charges that the CIA lied in its congressional briefings.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not talking about leaks \u2014 that\u2019s a very different issue,\u201d he said. \u201c[The idea of polygraphs] open[s] a whole series of separation-of-powers questions. The FBI cannot be evaluating the people who manage them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Issa said he believed that Congress could develop and administer its own polygraphs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Rep. Issa&#8217;s assumption that polygraph screening increases security is deeply flawed. As the National Academy of Sciences has <a title=\"The Polygraph and Lie Detection\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nap.edu\/books\/0309084369\/html\/\" target=\"_blank\">confirmed<\/a>, polygraphy has <a title=\"Forensic 'Lie Detection: Procedures Without Scientific Basis\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/articles\/article-018.shtml\">no scientific basis<\/a>. It&#8217;s inherently biased against the truthful, yet easily fooled through the use of simple, readily available <a title=\"The Lie Behind the Lie Detector\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.orgpubs.shtml\">countermeasures<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-Fla.), a member of the Intelligence panel, was even more blunt.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCut me some slack,\u201d he said when asked whether he believed members on the Intelligence panel should submit to polygraph tests. \u201cWe take an oath to uphold the Constitution when we\u2019re elected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>But military, intelligence, and law enforcement officers subject to polygraph screening <strong>also<\/strong> take an oath to uphold the Constitution when they are hired. That doesn&#8217;t immunize them from having their honesty and integrity assessed through the pseudoscience of polygraphy.<\/p>\n<p>If members of Congress are unwilling to subject themselves to polygraph screening, then they should <a title=\"Comprehensive Employee Polygraph Protection Act\" href=\"https:\/\/antipolygraph.orgeppa.shtml\">close the giant loophole<\/a> in the 1988 Employee Polygraph Protection Act that allows federal, state, and local government agencies to use this voodoo science on applicants and employees.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) has proposed polygraph screening for members of Congress who receive CIA briefings. Susan Crabtree reports for The Hill: Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) wants fellow lawmakers who receive classified CIA briefings to submit to polygraph tests. \u201cWe should have a very high standard for those who are briefed by CIA \u2014 to &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[66,69,28],"class_list":{"0":"post-316","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-polygraph","7":"tag-cia","8":"tag-congress","9":"tag-screening","10":"anons"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions\/323"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/antipolygraph.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}