Quote:
One has to wonder if, sometime before this horrid tragedy today, a whistle-blower on the inside of whatever terrorist network did this, gave a warning to the US Govt, and got polygraphed, and failed, and was then ignored.
At the minimum, something like that must have happened in the past at some point...
False +,
You raise an interesting point. Certainly, resposibility for the terrible crimes we have witnessed rests with those who committed them and no one else. Polygraphy may or may not have had some intersection with yesterday's terrorist strikes, and speculative fingerpointing is counterproductive.
That said, I think that our reliance on polygraphy, if it is to have any role in our counterintelligence and counterterrorism efforts, should be limited to an interrogation ploy, and no reliance at all should be placed on polygraph chart readings.
The Department of Defense Polygraph Institute offers a course on the polygraph testing of informants titled
"Operational Source Testing":
Quote:OPERATIONAL SOURCE TESTING (32 CEH)
Although originally designed specifically to enhance the abilities of the intelligence and counterintelligence examiners who are or were being assigned to PDD duties in support of human intelligence and offensive counterintelligence operations, this course has now broadened to provide topics of interest to the federal law enforcement polygraph examiner. The course includes background information on operational terminology, briefings on the operational structure and function of various intelligence agencies within the federal government. Also included are instructional segments concerning legal issues, use of interpreters, Foreign Intelligence Service recruitment operations and Domestic and International Terrorism. Instruction will also be offered in the areas of Foreign Use of Polygraph and an expanded block of instruction on the use of polygraph in source and Informant Testing. A developing topic of the course will be offered on the issue of Cultural Impacts of PDD Testing.
Prerequisite: The student must be employed or contracted as a polygraph examiner by a federal law enforcement or counterintelligence agency.
An apparent spectacular failure of "Operational Source Testing" is the case of the 1995 Chinese walk-in source who provided the CIA with reams of classified Chinese documents on rocketry and atomic weapons. Those documents went largely unexploited for years, apparently because the source "failed" a polygraph "test." For more on this case, see the message thread,
"Polygraph 'Testing' and the 1995 Chinese 'Walk-in.'" The point Anonymous raises (deceptive persons beating the polygraph) is another consideration. While I realize that Anonymous' remarks were intended to be ironic, it remains the case that over the years, many double agents have passed their polygraph "tests." Aldrich Ames is merely the most notorious of these.
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Whistle-blowers polygraphed? (Read 4281 times)
