Note: AntiPolygraph.org has prepared a navigable index to the archive posted here. See:

https://antipolygraph.org/articles/article-055.shtml

--AntiPolygraph.org Administrator

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                       Polygraph Place Bulletin Board Private Forum Archive

Ralph Hilliard, who runs the website PolygraphPlace.com, was compelled to take the site's bulletin board offline owing to "ongoing problems related to email spammers using vulnerabilities of the bulletin board to send spam through the server."

The bulletin board included a private forum for polygraph examiners that was opened on October 9, 2002. This is an archive of the private forum. Each message thread is saved in Mozilla Archive File Format (MAFF).

To read these files, you will need Mozilla Firefox and the Mozilla Archive File Format (MAFF) extension.

Get Firefox here:

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/fx/

Get the MAFF extension by selecting Tools->Add-ons and searching for MAFF or at:

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/mozilla-archive-format/

The file "Polygraph Place Bulletin Board.html.maff" contains 33 tabs corresponding to the 33 pages of the bulletin board. Use this file to browse the available topics. However, the links won't work. Instead, there is a numbered folder corresponding to each page of the index and enclosing the relevant threads. Where threads extended for multiple pages, these are preserved in multiple tabs within the same file. Again, bulletin board navigation links will not work.

You will also find a folder numbered "0." It contains several discussions posted after the 33-tab index file was saved.

The discussions on the Polygraph Place examiners' forum offer a rare glimpse into a closed community and could serve as rich source material for a master's thesis or doctoral dissertation on in-group/out-group psychology.

                            Dramatis Personae

A number of prominent figures in the polygraph community participated in these discussions. Screen names are indicated in parentheses where they substantially differ from real names:

* Gordon H. Barland, a former researcher at the Department of Defense Polygraph Institute

* Patrick Coffey (thenolieguy4u), a private polygrapher from northern California

* Barry Cushman (Barry C), current (May 2013) president of the American Polygraph Association

* Keith Gaines (liedoctor), an instructor at the National Center for Credibility Assessment (who is not a doctor)

* Ed Gelb (egelb), a past president of the American Polygraph Association

* Mark Handler (Mad Dog), a prolific writer on polygraph topics

* Ralph Hilliard (detector), owner of PolygraphPlace.com

* Donald Krapohl (dkrapohl), second-in-charge at the National Center for Credibility Assessment and editor of the American Polygraph Association's journal

* Dan Mangan, a private polygrapher who is skeptical of the scientific basis for polygraph. In the end he was banned from the forum.

* J.B. McCloughan, a polygraph examiner with the Michigan State Police and currently a director of the American Polygraph Association

* Paul Menges (CHSBOY), a former instructor at the National Center for Credibility Assessment (deceased)

* Raymond Nelson (rnelson), a private polygraph examiner who now works for the Lafayette Instrument Company

* Jack L. Ogilvie, a senior examiner with the Phoenix Police Department and a forum moderator

* Lou Rovner, a forum moderator and one of the few polygraph examiners with a Ph.D. (though you would never guess from his writing)

* Jim Sackett (sackett), a polygraph examiner with the Las Vegas Metropolitan P.D.

* Dan Sosnowski (Dan S), owner of a private polygraph school and past president of the American Polygraph Association

* Ted Todd, a polygraph examiner for the Contra Costa County Prosecutor

* Milton O. Webb (skipwebb), Army CID polygrapher and past president of the American Polygraph Association


               Suggested Readings (folder number indicated in parentheses)


* Got a call from Marisa Taylor of McClatchy Newspapers (1) Animated discussion of the investigative journalist's reporting on polygraph

* Comparison questions (20) Does this sound like the discourse of a scientific practice?

* We must have a mole (22) a long thread that begins with paranoia and moves on to the American Polygraph Association's investigation of the Marston Polygraph Academy

* Question on validated techniques (24) Scientific discussion?

* Countermeasures (28) A discussion of how to deal with polygraph countermeasures

* Honts (33) in which admission of Professor Charles R. Honts, a polygraph researcher, to the forum is discussed; forum members voted against allowing him to join the board.


           Discussions about George Maschke and/or AntiPolygraph.org
               (a frequent topic; these are just highlights):

* GM's Smoke & Mirrors 8)
* George Mashe (10)
* GM Translates for Al Qaeda? (12)
* Georges Wasteland (14)
* GEORGE MASCHKE; Ready, Aim, Fire !!!!!! (16)
* George Maschke arrested last night (16)
* Maschke's Website (19)
* George Maschke lives in a world of make-believe friends (21)
* George (22)

                         Discussions about Doug Williams:
                         
* Doug Williams book (3)
* Doug Williams to be on TV (9)

Well, I guess there's only one dog in the yard now!

Thank you Ex-Examiner for providing the readers of this website with this treasure trove of information of which the polygraph community does not want the general public to know!  I have always wondered what the polygraph community feels about the anti-polygraph community in general and GM in particular.

How did you obtain it?

Are you yourself a former polygraph examiner (judging from your moniker)?

How do you think Mr. Ralph Hilliard will respond?

(By the way, I had to install Firefox and install the MAFF add-on.  After downloading the ZIP file, I changed the property of this file so that it opens using the Firefox application.)

A review of message threads in the Polygraph Place archive with "countermeasure*" in the title provides no indication that the polygraph community has any coherent, let alone effective, method of detecting the kinds of countermeasures outlined in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

The internal exchanges regarding the countermeasure challenge are good reading. There are two juxtaposed themes--trying to convince themselves that they can indeed detect countermeasures, overlayed with an acute apprehension to step forward. 

Countermeasures Challenge - Polygraph Place Bulletin Board.html.maff

Doug, I think you've got that right. Moreover, I think the very existence of Operation Lie Busters, an apparent effort to criminalize the teaching or learning of polygraph countermeasures, is testimony to the polygraph community's inability to detect countermeasures and attendant insecurity.

Thank you, Doug, for pointing out the bad donation link at the bottom of the message board. I have updated it. I pay the costs of running AntiPolygraph.org out of pocket and am grateful to those who have helped to keep the lights on at AntiPolygraph.org over the years.

In a 30 July 2009 post to the PolygraphPlace.com examiner's forum, Skip Webb, a polygraph examiner with the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command and past president of the American Polygraph Association, makes an unusually candid admission about the nature of polygraphy in general and polygraph screening in particular that I think is worth quoting in its entirety:

Quote:


The same day, former DoDPI researcher Gordon H. Barland replied, "I am awestruck. That is a truly brilliant metaphor!"

I'm one of the "bolts" whose "head was wrung off," and I think Webb's metaphor shows that polygraph examiners at the highest levels of government know damned well that what they're doing is not science. It's also a tacit admission that pass/fail rates are dictated from above.

Webb's post appears in the message thread, "GM's Smoke & Mirrors" which is to be found in folder 8 of the archive.