I was told to schedule 2-3 hours. My polygrapher got me fairly quickly and took me in the room. It was just relevant questions and throw away questions, (are you sitting down). She called them comparison questions. They focused on espionage mostly with the two drug questions. He read over the questions, explained the polygraph procedure, had me sign a release and hooked me up. There was no 'calibrating' test. I was not nervous. I had read this site and just remembered that it was all a hoax and she couldn't measure anything, and if they could they would use a polygraph and not do the background investigation. I felt I did well. At the end she said I had two problems, drugs and if I had been careless with intel in my previous job. We did it again. She went out after each set and came back in fairly quickly. Suddenly she unhooked me and said it looked good except for those two questions and could I come back tomorrow for a retest. I could. She said i was to think about the questions i had had trouble with and see if I could identify what had bothered me. The whole thing took 50 minutes. Next day she took me back to the booth and asked me if I'd thought about what had bothered me. I said I could think of nothing except I had anticipated scepticism about the drug question. Nope, never used, no girlfriend had ever used, no roommate, never sold, never knew of a drug sale, etc...no, no, no. I also explained the failsafes at my last job that prevented carelessness. Either you wanted to sneak out material and went to a lot of effort or you followed procedure. She seemed to drop that line of inquiry. The second day was more life style stuff, the drugs again, was I going to be truthful, had I cheated in college, lied on loan apps, lied on FBI app, misused sick leave, that sort of stuff. This day the pressure cuff was on so tightly my arm turned black and the breathing tubes pinched. I was intensely uncomfortable. Went out after a while and came back and said a question was bothering me--the loan application question. Poly-ed for a while, went out, came back. Do it again. Lecture about telling her anything that was bothering me, 'because something obviously is'. Went out, I thought I heard her say in the hall, "Looks good" She might have said, "Looks good but..." Came back in and polyed again, went out then came back and unhooked me and told me I was having trouble with a couple questions about contact with foreign agents and intel services. Maybe I hadn't disclosed something, just forgot. Or maybe I knew a foreigner not associated with any government but that was bothering me. Or maybe I knew a foreigner on the internet or a friend who worked in a foreign government but maybe not in intel, maybe in social services or something. No, no, no. Well, how do you explain your irregularities (how does she explain why it's always a different question that's a problem?--no I didn't say it). I couldn't explain it. Well, she had to send it to DC and she wasn't sure about these charts. If there was any kind of explanation I could give, it would really help. Sorry, I can't explain it. Okay, well, we'll see. (Sad shake of head here). I should hear in a couple weeks. And it was over. It took an hour and a half. I suspect i passed. Any comment? A week and a half has passed and I wonder how they are going to tell me? By phone, letter?
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