touche wrote on Dec 3
rd, 2002 at 12:44am:
A high ranking officer called for Hirt to be arrested, yet the agents felt they needed more proof. Someone suggested Riedel and a "lie detector" test. Shortly thereafter, Hirt was arrested and brought to Riedel's office in California to have the test administered to him.
Despite the fact that he believed he would be vindicated by taking the test, Hirt was questioned by Riedel during the test.
When confronted with the deceptive results of the test, Hirt stated: "Hell, I see I can't get away with it. I might as well tell you the truth".
The story that the man slowly unfolded - a full confession - was startling. Not only did he frankly admit to spying for the Reich, but he also revealed every detail of his travels and his work under direct orders from Germany.
(A lengthy discussion takes place here where Hirt details how he performed his espionage activities, what his targets were (high altitude bombers) and how he communicated with his handlers in Germany using invisible ink letters)
After the details of Hirt's confession had been put on paper, he was returned to miltary custody and confined in an American military prison. He remained there long after the Nazi empire had collapsed. A trial was considered after the war,but higher military authorities realized it would be useless to attempt a formal trial because the principal corroborating witnesses were either dead in Germany or in prison as war criminals. Hirt was finally returned to Germany, and he quickly vanished.
Okay, there it is.
Touche,
Thank you for posting the information. It may indeed be more accurate to say that the polygraph has not caught a spy since World War II.
A question I'd like cleared up would have to do with whether the results of the polygraph alone were truly indicative of deception by objective standards (most likely R/I standards, given the time period we're talking about) -- it's obvious Hirt was already suspected of being a spy. Unfortunately, there's not enough information to gauge, based upon what you've quoted here, whether the confrontation/post-test interrogation was a bluff or the real thing (IOW, did the polygraph truly catch this man's deception, or was it used effectively as an interrogation prop?).
One thing that seems clear from the account, though, is that Hirt was not caught by a routine polygraph screening. In fact, they might have had enough info by the time the polygraph was administered to give a concealed-knowledge test.
I'll have to look up other information on Hirt, if it's available.
Skeptic