Hi Everyone,
Just thought I'd share my experience and see what you guys think. I recently had my 3rd CIA polygraph... The first 2 didn't go so well, but since they continued with the background investigation, I figured I had done well enough to pass. However, many months later, when I thought my clearance would finally be wrapping up, they called me and told me I needed to come in for another polygraph! I was extremely upset, but decided to go... Also, I had read this website (and told them so at the test), but didn't use any countermeasures, as I was under the impression that the CIA usually doesn't fail people for poly results alone...(and I had nothing to hide, so I decided to just take it normally...) Well, it went terribly. We only went over "counterintelligence questions", and from the very start, they accused me of "manipulating the test", and being deceptive... though they wouldn't provide me any details about either. Basically, they accused me of being a spy. However, they wouldn't go so far as to say I had definitely failed. I haven't heard the official results, but assume they won't be good. Maybe I SHOULD have used countermeasures--but it was definitely intimidating the way they kept accusing me of manipulation! Anyone have a similar experience with this agency?

AngryinNY,

Your experience seems to be not unlike that of Maureen Lenihan, mentioned at p. 124 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

How did you come under the impression that "the CIA usually doesn't fail people for poly results alone?" The available evidence leads me to the opposite conclusion.

AngryinNY wrote on Sep 11^th, 2003 at 3:24am:


Did they actually use this terminology or did they indicate you had only responded physiologically to that particular question?

In response to your questions... they didn't say precisely "you are a spy", but they did say that I was obviously concealing something regarding espionage. It may have just been some kind of stress test to see how I would react--I'm really not sure yet. Also, in response to Ya Hoo--there was a full year between my 2nd and 3rd polygraphs, so I recommend you don't sit around waiting for an answer!