It means an agency search program found some words in your application that the agency is looking for and they want you to complete additional forms for a human to review.  If you get contacted again, after that, than its a good sign they have more than a passing interest in you.

I doubt  the fact that you filed a Privacy Act request for your FBI file would be used against you, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibility out of hand, either. I do think you were wise to file the request. It's important that you know what admissions have been attributed to you. AntiPolygraph.org has received reports of fabricated admissions by FBI polygraphers. Bureau polygraphers may have an incentive to embellish, as their performance evaluations were in the past (and may well still be) based on their admission/confession rates. The Bureau's practice of not recording polygraph examinations minimizes the risk to the polygrapher of embellishing or fabricating admissions.

Since the matter of your FBI polygraph experience is inevitably going to come up in the future (when you sit for a polygraph examination with this intelligence agency, you will be asked about any past polygraphs), I think there would be little harm (and possibly some benefit) in broaching the issue with your recruiter now.

As for using countermeasures, I think in your situation it might be more prudent to use the "complete honesty" approach suggested in Chapter 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (with all its attendant risks). Your polygrapher is going to expect you to have researched polygraphy after your experience with the FBI and probably won't believe you if you say you haven't.

unknown100 wrote on Feb 14^th, 2005 at 10:50pm:


Who has asked you to participate in an information session and under what context?