CIA polygraphers will employ a theme to elicit a confession or derogatory admission. A theme is a moral excuse for why the examinee committed an act that minimizes or lessens the moral implications of the conduct. It serves as a crutch for the examinee to make him more open to confess and implicate himself with the disqualifying act. There are several themes the polygraph examiner might employ: 

1.      Anyone else under similar circumstances might have done the same thing 

•      For example, if the examiner is attempting to elicit a confession that you smoked pot or used drugs at a party, he might suggest that everyone else at the party was doing it, and anyone else in your situation would have done the same thing due to peer pressure. 

2.      Minimizing the moral seriousness of the act 

•      For example, if the examiner is attempting to elicit a confession that you mishandled sensitive information at work, he might suggest to you the documents were not that sensitive and would not have caused major repercussions. You would just have been morally reprimanded. 

3.      Suggesting a less reprehensible and morally acceptable motivation for the act

•      For example, if the examiner is attempting to elicit a confession that you stole money from the cash register, he might suggest you needed the money to support your family and sick grandparents. 

4.      Sympathize with the examinee by condemning others

•      For example, if the examiner is attempting to elicit a confession that you got into a street fight, he might blame the person you fought for provoking you. 

The moment the examinee agrees with the theme that the polygrapher examiner tries to coerce the examinee into acknowledging is when the examinee implicates themselves with the act. Do not acknowledge the themes! Do not shoot yourself in your own foot.  Once you do, then it is game over. 

Good resources, I read them. 

I also recommend this primary textbook on the Reid Technique: https://www.amazon.com/Essentials-Reid-Technique-Interrogation-Confessions/dp/14...

User35,

Correct, the Reid Technique has been known to coerce innocent people into false confessions. I experienced it with the CIA. It uses many manipulative and coercive tactics. I will be taking a course on the John E. Reid Technique with Reid & Accociates to have a better understanding of how it works and criticize it: https://reid.com/

I am the same one. I was denied clearance in 2013 and appealed it that same year with a response to SOR with a security clearance attorney. The idiot CIA never replied back to me, so I had to reach out to my attorney in July 2017 to reach out to them and receive a reply from the agency. The agency replied back and said they rejected the response to SOR in February 2017. Yes, my employment offer was rescinded from the government contractor. I never reapplied for a clearance and will forever avoid federal government work. I have been working at a financial regulator since 2014.

That's good what you are doing. The CIA coerces innocent people into false confessions. There is discrimination and bias from the polygraph examiners and adjudicators so that they can treat examinees like monsters without repercussions. They don't care about examinees or their careers. Their only goal is to elicit confessions, whether they are coerced false confessions or not. I haven't posted here for a long time, but recently, the anger at the injustice I faced ten years ago resurfaced again, and now I am letting it out again.