CBS News is reporting that double agent and suicide bomber Humam al-Balawi was not polygraphed by the CIA:


Quote:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/01/05/eveningnews/main6059625.shtml (AP)  The double agent was brought onto the CIA base in Afghanistan without first being given a polygraph test, one of the basic tools in establishing a spy's trustworthiness. He had provided bona fide information including the location of al Qaeda leaders killed by CIA drone strikes, but a U.S. intelligence official says "there were still questions" about his "reliability" and the "access" he claimed to have to senior al Qaeda leaders, reports CBS News chief national security correspondent David Martin. ...

If this report is correct, then the CIA is to be congratulated, not faulted, for not having relied on the magical thinking associated with polygraphy to vet al-Balawi.