FBI Spokesman Suggests Polygraph Can't Be Beaten

[George W. Maschke]

Peter A. Gulotta, Jr., spokesman for the FBI's Baltimore Field Office, suggested to Baltimore Sun reporter Laura Sullivan that the FBI pre-employment polygraph "test" cannot be beaten:

"We don't want to discourage people, but it's difficult," said Peter A. Gulotta Jr., a spokesman for the Baltimore field office, one of the top recruiting offices in the nation.

"Especially the polygraph," he said. "Because despite our warnings that you're not going to beat it, they'll go try anyway. There's no sense in embarrassing yourself."

The above quote appears in the article "FBI sets its bar high for aspiring agents" in today's (26 March 2002) paper.

I think that Mr. Gulotta ought to be called upon to defend his claim, and I encourage all to place a call to the Baltimore Field Office, ask for Peter Gulotta, and request clarification of the basis for his claim that "you're not going to beat it." The time has come that public officials be challenged when they make baseless claims that the polygraph can't be beaten. After all, peer-reviewed research suggests that CQT polygraphy is indeed vulnerable to countermeasures, and that polygraphers cannot detect countermeasures at better than chance levels. And the American Polygraph Association quarterly Polygraph in its 30-year history has not published a single article explaining how polygraphers can reliably detect the kinds of countermeasures described in The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

The FBI's Baltimore Field Office may be reached at (410) 265-8080 from 8:15 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. Eastern time.

You can also e-mail Laura Sullivan of the Sun at  laura.sullivan@baltsun.com. Among other things, she ought to be made aware of Drew Richardson's 1997 Senate testimony that anyone can be taught to beat a polygraph "test" in a few minutes.