Marcus Klingberg: Soviet Spy in Israel Beat Multiple Polygraph Tests

[George W. Maschke]

Marcus Klingberg

In a November 2000 letter to Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists, polygraph-beating spy Aldrich H. Ames observed, "The US is, so far as I know, the only nation which places such extensive reliance on the polygraph." One government that perhaps comes close to the U.S. in its reliance on polygraphy is that of the State of Israel. Dr. Marcus Klingberg, an Israeli scientist and confessed Soviet spy, now joins the ranks of spies publicly known to have beaten the polygraph. (Others include Karel F. Koecher, Larry Wu-tai Chin, and Ana Belen Montes, who spied for Czechoslovakia, China, and Cuba, respectively.)

Boston Globe correspondent Dan Ephron reports on the case of Dr. Marcus Klingberg in an article titled, "Israel details damaging espionage case." Ephron writes in part:

From 1957 to 1975, Klingberg, 84, who had served as deputy head of the secretive Biological Institute near Tel Aviv, passed information to the Soviet Union about Israel's chemical and biological warfare programs, seriously compromising the country's ability to defend against a nonconventional attack, according to a new book and to security officials familiar with the case.

...

Both Mossad and Shabak, Israel's foreign and domestic security agencies, had suspicions about Klingberg over the years, but surveillance operations turned up nothing and the scientist managed to pass successive lie detector tests.

[George W. Maschke]

A 15 Jan. 2003 article in Pravda titled, "Last KGB Spy to be Released in Israel" notes that Klingberg is to be released in two weeks and is expected to join his daughter and granddaughter in Paris.

[George W. Maschke]

For more on the Klingenberg case, see Matthew Gutman's 8 Feb. 2003 Jerusalem Post article, "Former Soviet spy in rare interview: My chemical warfare leaks did no harm". The article describes a television interview Klingenberg granted in Paris. It briefly mentions that he had passed multiple lie detector "tests":

He managed to elude the Shin Bet and the Mossad from 1957 to 1975. Before his conviction Klingberg passed several lie detector tests, puzzling his interrogators who had begun to suspect him.

[George W. Maschke]

Israeli news website Ynetnews.com has published a profile of polygraph-beating spy Marcus Klingberg. A PDF printout is attached.

[George W. Maschke]

Marcus Klingberg, the Polish-born microbiologist who spied on Israel for the Soviet Union and passed several lie detector "tests," has died in Paris at the age of 97:

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Marcus-Klingberg-the-Israeli-who-spied-for-the-Soviet-Union-dies-at-97-435902

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/2015/11/30/scoop-israeli-double-agent-who-exposed-israels-most-damaging-spy-now-identified/