Quote:Thanks for the information. Can you explain more about the call from the local FBI office? Why did you get the call? Were you applying to the FBI?
Here is my little
"Called by the FBI because of the polycrap test" story:
On April 3rd, 2002, at around 2pm (I remember because it was my son's birthday) totally out of the blue, I get a call from a female special agent from the Honolulu office. This is two years after my failed polygraph at NSA. She says she and her partner wanted to set up an appoint with me to talk about "national security". I ask her why me? Did she pick my number out of the phonebook or what. She is evasive. And doesn't really give me an answer. So I press a little harder and she admits it is due to my NSA application and polygraph. I ask her why she would want to talk to me over the results of a polygraph taken two years ago. I get another "we just want to talk to you about issues of national security" bullshit answer.
Naturally, I am getting suspicious, and decide to take it up a notch, so I just tell her: "Look, I get a call out of the blue from the FBI wanting to talk to me about a bogus polygraph test taken two years ago. Hey, the guy who tested me said it was 98% accurate. So why haven't you come over and arrested me?" She get's a little peeved, and says, arrogantly, if she wanted to arrest me, they would just come over and "kick your door in!"
At this point, and especially after I having lost my trust in LE and/or counter-intelligence types, especially due to my experience with the polygraph (i.e. that being trustful and telling the truth just ain't enough and can backfire), I just tell her I will contact an attorney, and call her the next day.
She agrees. I call an attorney from this board, forget his name Mark something or other. I explain what happened. He recommends calling her back and asking:
1) Am I under suspicion for having committed a crime under investigation? And
2) Is it MANDATORY I met with them.
I call the next morning (April 4th), Hawaii Standard Time.
I tell her I conferred with an attorney, and he recommended I ask these questions. I ask them. Her answers are, NO and NO.
I tell her that I decline her invitation to met.
She responds, suspiciously, "Well, why would you not want to meet with us?" I respond: "Well, why would I?"
She starts to get a little milder in tone, and sort of drops the facade a little. She admits that I am not in any trouble, they are just doing a follow-up. Mentions the WTC 9/11 attacks (which at that point had only happened recently), and that they are updating their information base....etc.
At this point, I am satisfied they are not trying to con me. And we talk about the polygraph. I told her in no uncertain terms what I think of the test. She halfway agrees, reminding me that SHE had to go through the same process. They explain that since the attacks, they are trying to turn over every rock when it comes to national security...etc.
I explain that the NSA polycrapper just made a big deal about my interaction with a Taiwan government office in Honolulu, and trips I made to Taiwan. I explained that I had already met with the Naval Investigative Service in 1992 before retiring from the Navy in 1994 (Chinese Linguist). Got debriefed for three hours by them, and they didn't have any problem with that, as I kept my clearance and access SCI two years after that (1992-94). She agreed that she didn't understand why NSA would have a problem with that.
We ended the phoncon amicably. She even apologized for me and hoped that my experience would not stop me from ever contacting them if anyone suspicious started asking questions about what I did in the Navy...etc.
TC