Kona-

Ironically, I have never been polygraphed before for any of the clearances I've held and currently hold, just as you have been. You would think as a current government employee granted a relatively high level of clearance that the FBI would conduct a background investigation as a routine matter, at least as far back as my last adjudication, prior to a polygraph to verify specific information. Their reliance on the polygraph as a screening tool is, in my opinion, a significant measure to help them reduce the cost of processing employment candidates. Since the pool of candidates is extremely large though, I guess they can pick and choose from whomever they want, and this is, of course, their privilege. At this point, all I can say is that it's the FBI's loss, not mine.

Fair Chance-

I agree. There are reasons for concern, and it is a personal issue. The FBI Manual of Investigative Operations and Guidelines, Polygraph Examinations of FBI Applicants states that: "A preemployment polygraph examination is one element
of the overall applicant screening process.  It is not to be considered as a substitute for a thorough and complete background investigation." However, a background investigation, as you mentioned, will never be conducted if the candidate doesn't pass the polygraph examination. It would appear that the FBI is violating their own policy, unless I'm reading it wrong. It is not comforting to me that I am now considered "acceptable collateral damage", and I am getting set to fight this thing as you have done-successfully, I trust. I will take your advice on writing our other elected officials until my appeals have been 'exhausted'-is there a specific or general time frame that I should be aware of?

Thanks for the support from all who have read and replied. Your comments and advice have been welcome.

Regards,

Undesirable