skip.webb wrote on Apr 18^th, 2008 at 6:06pm:

Mr. Maschke, You missed my point.

No I didn't. You made an analogy between strategic deception in combat operations and DACA's new hand-held lie detector. But that analogy was inapposite, and I replied with a more appropriate one.


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You are not an expert in credibility assessment nor did you conduct the research.

I don't claim to be an expert in credibility assessment, but I do know a fair deal about lie detectors (and co-authored a book on the topic).

It would appear that the good people at the Defense Academy for Credibility Assessment are no experts at assessing credibility, nor at conducting credible scientific research. Note that to understand the results of a scientific research report, one need not have conducted the research oneself. That's kinda sorta the whole idea behind publishing research.

The bottom line is that DACA has not demonstrated that the PCASS will reliably work at better than chance levels of accuracy under field conditions, or that it is robust against countermeasures.

As Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed the National Academy of Science's Committee to Review the Scientific Evidence on the Polygraph, told MSNBC, "Sending these instruments into the field in Iraq and Afghanistan without serious scientific assessment, and for use by untrained personnel, is a mockery of what we advocated in our report."


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You may have an informed opinion about the equipment but it is merely your opinion.  Let’s suppose that you had an opinion about some other piece of equipment in use by our forces in Iraq or Afghanistan.  Maybe a IED detector or a night vision device.  Let's also suppose that you believed (in your opinion) the equipment was not perfect or had some weakness.  Would you print out and distribute to the enemy, the instructions for circumventing the IED detection device or some method by which one could negate the effectiveness of the night vision device?  Suppose the armor on our vehicles was less than perfect or had some flaw.  Would you provide our enemy with instructions on where to attack the vehicle or how to take advantage of the weakness?

Your analogies are again inapposite. PCASS is not just "less than perfect." It's an utter pseudoscientific sham, and as I have explained elsewhere, DACA has fraudulently overstated its accuracy.


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That's exactly what you are doing now and that to me is an act certainly not taken by a patriot but an enemy.

I think your judgment is clouded by the self-interest associated with your status as a polygraph examiner. But again, if you really think I've committed treason, please feel free to post here, for the edification of all, a copy of your criminal referral to the Department of Justice.