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Topic summary

Posted by George W. Maschke
 - Aug 26, 2001, 03:45 AM
Rep. Condit also discussed his polygraph "test" with retired FBI polygrapher Barry Colvert in an interview with editors of the Merced, California Sun-Star.

At the beginning of the interview, a Sun-Star interviewer asked Rep. Condit if there were any questions he hadn't been asked that he would like to address at the outset of the interview. Among other things, Condit replied:

Quote
I did a polygraph test – got criticized for that. Found the best polygraph operator in the country, the guy who trains the FBI agents. FBI will tell you he's one of the best. I didn't know the guy, but I didn't know the guy, I walked into the room and strapped on the lie detector. I'm telling you if you've ever done that it's a pretty spooky feeling as well because even though you know you haven't done anything, you don't know how the machine works – don't know this guy and you don't know what the outcome is going to be...

This is the first time I've heard of Rep. Condit publicly state that he didn't know "how the machine works." If he didn't, then he ought to fire his lawyer, Abbe Lowell, who apparently arranged for the polygraph "test." When asked later in the interview why he has not consented to a police polygraph examination, Condit dodged the question:

Quote
Sun-Star: Why have you not consented to a police polygraph examination?

Condit: Well, I'm you know, I'm kind of new to this polygraph world but when, you know when you've thought about doing everything we could do to be helpful to the police department, we went out and found the best guy in the country, the guy who trains the FBI and he's like his credentials are unchallengeable and we got him, you know, and we thought that, I actually thought that would be acceptable. I'm a little bit disappointed that the police chief jumped so quick before he even had a chance to look at the results of the polygraph, I think it was just territorial, you know maybe we mishandled it in that maybe we should have advised him first but we took the polygraph test. I believe that the FBI people working on this who know this gentleman probably have a different view than the police chief. I think the police chief probably has a different view today than he did.

Sun-Star: Were there any questions that were off-limits? Were there any ground rules to the polygraph test?

Condit: I don't know if you've ever been around that or taken it but I had no off-ground rules – I had no limitations, but they have a process by which they can only ask so many questions and then the return on the information gets weaker and they have to frame it. They do these things like they got to find the thing that gets to you and that was interesting how, after I'd gone through it, he found out how the things he did to get to me to rise your blood level or whatever it is, but there is a system -- there is a process to do this I do not understand it – I can only say to you that it was scary. You walk into a room in a house you don't know, you don't know this guy, you know he's a 30-year FBI agent, you know he doesn't like bad guys. He may think you're a bad guy and he straps you off and begins to ask you questions. You know you didn't do anything but you don't know what the machine's going to say. But that's, we just thought we were doing the right thing.


Sun-Star: O.K.

Condit: And still think we're doing the right thing and in the final analysis we believe that the FBI and people will see that this is a legitimate test.

Sun-Star: And you didn't go with the police polygraph, because?

Condit: Well, it was discussed that maybe we should do that so we just went out and did it, just went out and found the best guy in town.

Sun-Star: Did the D.C. police still want a polygraph of their own? As I recall there was some questions that weren't made public that were asked of your attorneys.

Condit: I think we made all the questions public to the police department.

Sun-Star: They've got all the questions?

Condit: Yeah, they've got all the questions. Now I'm not sure, they have sort of I mean I think they've sort of backed off on it. I mean once they've got the lie detector test they've got it explained to them by their own polygraph people, I think there's a little less interest in pushing that right now.


Sun-Star: So they're satisfied that on that?

Condit: As soon as I say they're satisfied Chief Ramsey will say something different. But it seems to me it's calmed them down once they've actually got the credentials of this guy and they can really figure out what they, what it says.

The entire interview transcript is available on the Merced Sun-Star website at:

http://www.mercedsun-star.com/f.transcript.html  

I find it disappointing that Rep. Condit would take a private polygraph "test" (apparently as a public relations stunt) while refusing to submit to a police-administered polygraph interrogation (and being evasive when asked to explain why).

The best answer that anyone (whether truthful or deceptive) can give for refusing to submit to a polygraph interrogation is that polygraphy is a pseudoscientific fraud:

  • its validity has not been established by peer-reviewed research;

  • it is fundamentally dependent on trickery;

  • it has an inherent bias against the truthful, because the more honestly one answers the so-called "control" questions, the more likely one is to "fail;"

  • a passed polygraph "test" is proof of nothing. These "tests" are easily passed through the use of simple countermeasures that polygraphers cannot detect.
Posted by George W. Maschke
 - Aug 24, 2001, 05:11 AM
On Thursday, 23 August 2001, ABC News Primetime aired Connie Chung's interview of Rep. Gary Condit. During this interview, Chung asked Condit about polygraph "testing." The following is an excerpt from the 3rd part of the 3-part transcript:

Quote
CHUNG   Um, why won't you take a polygraph test administered by the police? And why won't you cooperate with Chandra Levy's parents (sic) investigators?

CONDIT   Well, let me say that, that uh ¡­ you know, this is sort of new to me. But when the polygraph issue came up ¡­

CHUNG   What is sort of new to you?

CONDIT   This polygraph issue, in that uh ¡­ I'm not familiar with the polygraph people. But we went out to find the best.

CHUNG   I understand.

CONDIT   (Overlap) The best in the country.

CHUNG   (Overlap) But why won't you take one ¡­ from the police?

CONDIT   (Overlap) We found the best in the country that ¡­ he trains the FBI agents who give the polygraph tests. And so we took the test. We passed the test. And his credibility is unchallenged by people in the industry. And I'm, I'm confused by the police chief's comment immediately after we take the polygraph test. He did not read the polygraph test. Uh, I think you'll find that people in the FBI now have seen the polygraph test, they can read the polygraph test, and it makes total sense to them. So we basically thought we were being helpful, just found the best guy we could find. And that's what we did. And I don't know if ¡­

CHUNG   (Overlap) Why, why won't you cooperate with uh, the Levy family investigators? And why won't you take ¡­ if you, if you are guilty of no criminal wrongdoing, if you're not guilty of any criminal wrongdoing, why don't you take a polygraph test given by the police, and cooperate with Chandra Levy's ¡­

CONDIT   (Overlap) But we've taken a polygraph test. And it, and it proves that I'm innocent. And it's by, it's by a ¡­ a guy who's one of the highest-regarded gentlemen in that field in the country.


Rep. Condit's claim that the FBI "can read the polygraph test, and it makes total sense to them" seems to contradict a public announcement made by the FBI in June stating, "It is the longstanding policy of the F.B.I. not to render official opinions of polygraph charts submitted by an outside entity because there is no way to verify the totality of the circumstances under which the examination was conducted..."

For more on what the FBI had to say about Rep. Condit's polygraph "test," see "FBI Doubletalk on Condit's Polygraph Results."

I'm also left wondering to whom Rep. Condit was referring when he said, "And so we took the test. We passed the test."

We?