John,

The odds of anyone who has twice "failed" an FBI pre-employment polygraph interrogation being hired (without an accusation of countermeasures) are virtually zero. The odds for anyone who stands accused of having employed polygraph countermeasures are not likely to be any better.

Nonetheless, it is proper to exhaust your administrative appeals of the Bureau's action. I suggest that you also contact attorney Mark Zaid <ZaidMS@aol.com>, who represents eleven plaintiffs who are currently suing the FBI, USSS, and DEA over their pre-employment polygraph practices.

I strongly recommend that you promptly request all information about your FBI polygraph interrogations (including charts, the polygraphers' reports, and "quality control" reviews) under the Freedom of Information/Privacy Act. See Chapter 5 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector for more on this.

You wrote, "What an absolute dream killer this unethical machine is." It is important to bear in mind that it is not the polygraph instrument that is unethical: it is the public employees who are arbitrarily and capriciously branding others as liars based on this junk science.

Ultimately, polygraph abuse must be ended through legislation. I invite you to join us in working to abolish employment-related polygraph "testing" through enactment of a Comprehensive Polygraph Protection Act eliminating the governmental and other exemptions to the 1988 Employee Polygraph Protection Act. This won't happen unless our representatives and senators in Congress hear from us. I suggest you write to your congressman and senators urging them to sponsor such legislation. It would also be helpful to call each of their local offices to schedule a face-to-face meeting to explain the need for polygraph reform the next time the congressman/senator is in town.

(Also feel free to e-mail me privately in this regard at <maschke@antipolygraph.org>.)

George - 

Administrative appeal failed as expected.  I just wonder if they know who buys that Williams manual.  I'm thinking they do.  If countermeasures are a threat to national security, why couldn't they get a warrant to do surveillance/investigate that guy?  Anyway, I wish I never saw that manual or learned anything about how the machine works - thats what ruined me.  Knowledge was not power in my case.  My advice here: if you insist on doing CM's and using the Williams manual, don't buy it online with your credit card.  Send a money order or something - he doesn't need your money on the spot.

GINO - I was not asked countermeasures-related questions while "hooked up".  I was only asked CM questions before and after the exam.  He asked if I had heard of Williams, etc.  My retest consisted of the the same original questions from the 'drug series' with one new control Q asking if I had ever stolen anything of value as an adult.  I was stupid and failed to react to it the first two times he came to it.  The third time I did react.  I think it was clearly added by the headquarters people to see if my reaction to a new control Q would be as abnormally strong as my reactions to the original control questions.  My "non-reaction" and/or inconsistent reaction to this new control question was likely deemed a tacit admission of CM use.

However, the whole retest may have been a big BS session if they already knew I bought the manual.