Joe McCarthy wrote on Feb 21^st, 2017 at 10:45am:

Doug Williams wrote on Feb 20th, 2017 at 1:05am: As Dr. Maschke correctly states, this marks the first time that the government has admitted that I can teach a person to pass the polygraph test regardless of whether they are telling the truth  or lying.  I have said for almost forty years that if I can teach a person to control every tracing on the polygraph chart and ALWAYS pass, nervous or not, lying or not, no matter what, that is prima facie evidence that the polygraph is not a "lie detector".  It defies logic that the government continues to use the polygraph while at the same time admitting it is worthless.  I have much more to say in my reply to the government which Dr. Maschke will post when it is filed. Doug, and I say this with all due respect, the "ALWAYS pass" thing, come on.  They don't "ALWAYS" pass. Now that being set aside.  I am glad that you are well, and you got out of a very difficult time in your life.  I take no joy in someone else's misery. Actually, check that.  There are a few I would take pleasure in seeing miserable, you are not one of them.  We may disagree about a lot, but you've never taken things to a personal level with me.

You are quite correct Joe, they don't ALWAYS pass - not because they didn't produce a perfect "truthful" chart, but because polygraph operators often disregard the fact that the person did in fact produce a chart that should be scored as "NO DECEPTION INDICATED".  It is an unfortunate fact that all too often polygraph operators call a person deceptive and "fail" them even though it is obvious from the chart tracings that they had told the truth - or at least what passes for the truth on the polygraph.  But I can teach a person to do what they need to do to ALWAYS produce a "truthful" chart.  It is very simple to teach a person to produce a reaction on the control questions and show no reaction on the relevant questions, but you are right, I cannot guarantee them that the polygraph operator will accurately report what he/she sees on the chart.  I have taught thousands of people to "pass" the test and for the past 10 years I have used the AXCITON computerized polygraph instrument and in the last several years have used the scoring software which ALWAYS shows a reading of NO DECEPTION INDICATED.