In a 19 June 2002 article titled  "
2 FBI Whistle-Blowers Allege Lax Security, Possible Espionage," Washington Post staff writer James V. Grimaldi reports on allegations made by fired FBI contract linguist Sibel Edmonds regarding possible espionage by a co-worker on behalf of a Middle Eastern organization targeted for electronic surveillance by FBI counterintelligence. Edmonds states that the co-worker herself claimed to be a member of the targeted organization and also tried to recruit her into it. Grimaldi reports that "[g]overnment officials familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified said that both Edmonds and the woman were given polygraph examinations by the FBI and that both passed." The article does not make it clear if those examinations were about Edmonds' allegations or if they were simply the standard pre-employment polygraph examinations to which all FBI applicants must submit.

But either way, if Sibel Edmonds' allegations are true, the FBI may have been penetrated by a double agent who beat the polygraph. It would not be the first time such a thing happened. Other double agents who beat the polygraph include Karel F. Koecher, Larry Wu-tai Chin, and Aldrich H. Ames (all worked for CIA) and Ana Belen Montes, the senior DIA analyst who recently pled guilty to spying for Cuba.