Senator Richard C. Shelby (R-AL), who advocated polygraph tests for others but refused to take one himself, has been identified as the source of the leak of highly classified information that the National Security Agency had intercepted a telephone conversation in Arabic held on 10 September 2001 in which it was stated, "The match is about to begin" and "Tomorrow is zero hour." See, "Investigators Concluded Shelby Leaked Message" by Washington Post staff writers Allan Lengel and Dana Priest.

Sen. Shelby, then a member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, leaked the information minutes after he received it in a classified briefing held on 19 June 2002. The chairmen of the House and Senate intelligence committees, Rep. Porter J. Goss (R-FL) and Sen. Bob Graham (D-FL), were unable to track down the source of the leak themselves and asked the FBI for assistance, pledging the full cooperation of committee members and their staffs.

But when the FBI asked whether members would agree to polygraph "testing," Sen. Shelby stated, "I don't know who among us would take a lie-detector test. First of all, they're not even admissible in court, and second of all, the leadership [of both parties] have told us not to do that."

And yet it was Sen. Shelby who introduced amendments to the FY 2001 Defense Authorization Bill to expand the use of polygraphs at the national laboratories and to rescind the Secretary of Energy's authority to grant waivers.

And it was Sen. Shelby who was responsible for the sacking of L. Britt Snider as head of the joint congressional inquiry into the intelligence failings surrounding the events of 11 September 2001 because Snider had hired a staffer who "failed" a CIA polygraph "test."

And it was Sen. Shelby who, following the arrest of FBI turncoat Robert Hanssen in February 2001, stated, "I don't know offhand if the FBI agents are routinely polygraphed or not, but if they're dealing with counterintelligence, they ought to be."