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Posted by George W. Maschke
- Jan 13, 2005, 05:59 PMPerhaps not surprisingly, I did not receive a reply from General Miller to the e-mail I sent him on 10 October 2003, and it appears that compulsory polygraph "tests" were indeed administered to U.S. personnel at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In an investigative series titled, Suspicion in the Ranks, Seattle Times reporter Ray Rivera documents the U.S. Army's investigation of chaplain James Yee, who was arrested on espionage charges that were later dropped. In Chapter 6, titled "Espionage Fever," Rivera makes passing reference to compulsory polygraph "testing" at Guantanamo:
In an investigative series titled, Suspicion in the Ranks, Seattle Times reporter Ray Rivera documents the U.S. Army's investigation of chaplain James Yee, who was arrested on espionage charges that were later dropped. In Chapter 6, titled "Espionage Fever," Rivera makes passing reference to compulsory polygraph "testing" at Guantanamo:
QuoteAs Yee remained in solitary confinement, agents with the FBI, the Justice Department, National Security Agency, Army, Navy and Air Force scrambled to build a case. They pored through his computer files, searched his residences at Guantánamo and Olympia, and questioned his wife, family and Muslim linguists at Camp Delta. The linguists' interviews sometimes turned intimidating. Interrogations lasted six to nine hours, some culminating with investigators reading the translators the military's version of their Miranda rights.
Several linguists sought the advice of Lt. Cmdr. Loretta Nygard, a Navy lawyer stationed at the base at the time. "Many believed they had been coerced into waiving their rights," she said in an affidavit. Many also were concerned with polygraph tests they were ordered to take, she said.
Posted by james
- Oct 10, 2003, 08:26 PMGreat work George, please keep it up.
Posted by George W. Maschke
- Oct 10, 2003, 09:29 AMToday (10 October 2003), I sent the following e-mail message to Major General Geoffrey D. Miller, U.S. Army, who commands the Joint Task Force, Guantanamo:
Quote
Dear General Miller:
The Associated Press reports that you are considering lie detector tests for personnel under your command. As you consider whether to implement such a policy, please bear in mind that the National Academy of Sciences recently completed a thorough review of the scientific evidence on the polygraph and found it to be without validity. In fact, their report, The Polygraph and Lie Detection, likens polygraphy to a superstitious ritual with the polygrapher officiating as shaman. You'll find that report on-line at:
http://www.nap.edu/books/0309084369/html/
You should also be aware that apart from having no scientific basis, polygraph tests are also readily manipulated through the use of simple countermeasures that polygraph operators cannot detect. Countermeasure information is readily available, for example, in AntiPolygraph.org's free e-book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector, which may be downloaded here:
http://antipolygraph.org/lie-behind-the-lie-detector.pdf
There is a good chance that any spies under your command have already learned how to fool the polygraph. (You will recall that Ana Belen Montes, the Pentagon's top analyst for matters related to Cuba, turned out to be a Cuban double agent who beat the polygraph.)
In addition, reliance on polygraph results has led to considerable investigative misdirection in past espionage cases, including, notably, the Marine Embassy guard scandal in the 1980s, in which Naval Criminal Investigative Service polygraphers extracted false confessions from marines at the U.S. Embassy, Moscow. You'll find this case and others documented in Chapter 2 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.
In the event that you do order polygraph interrogations, you could help prevent abuses such as have occurred in past cases by ordering that any such interrogations be videotaped from beginning to end, and that the tapes be preserved.
Sincerely,
George W. Maschke
AntiPolygraph.org