John,

The odds of anyone who has twice "failed" an FBI pre-employment polygraph interrogation being hired (without an accusation of countermeasures) are virtually zero. The odds for anyone who stands accused of having employed polygraph countermeasures are not likely to be any better.

Nonetheless, it is proper to exhaust your administrative appeals of the Bureau's action. I suggest that you also contact attorney Mark Zaid <ZaidMS@aol.com>, who represents eleven plaintiffs who are currently suing the FBI, USSS, and DEA over their pre-employment polygraph practices.

I strongly recommend that you promptly request all information about your FBI polygraph interrogations (including charts, the polygraphers' reports, and "quality control" reviews) under the Freedom of Information/Privacy Act. See Chapter 5 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector for more on this.

You wrote, "What an absolute dream killer this unethical machine is." It is important to bear in mind that it is not the polygraph instrument that is unethical: it is the public employees who are arbitrarily and capriciously branding others as liars based on this junk science.

Ultimately, polygraph abuse must be ended through legislation. I invite you to join us in working to abolish employment-related polygraph "testing" through enactment of a Comprehensive Polygraph Protection Act eliminating the governmental and other exemptions to the 1988 Employee Polygraph Protection Act. This won't happen unless our representatives and senators in Congress hear from us. I suggest you write to your congressman and senators urging them to sponsor such legislation. It would also be helpful to call each of their local offices to schedule a face-to-face meeting to explain the need for polygraph reform the next time the congressman/senator is in town.

(Also feel free to e-mail me privately in this regard at <maschke@antipolygraph.org>.)