St. Petersburg Times Editorial

[George W. Maschke]

Today (6 Jan. 2003) the St. Petersburg Times published a splendid editorial titled "Faulty lie detector" which concludes by calling on the Department of Energy to dump the polygraph. I encourage all who agree to send a letter to the editor at letters@SPTimes.com. Be sure to include your verifiable name, address, and phone number so that your letter may be considered for publication. I think it is important that the editors of the St. Petersburg Times receive positive feedback for having taken a public stand against polygraph screening.

[George W. Maschke]

I have sent the St. Petersburg Times the following letter (I've omitted my street address and phone number in this post):

Dear Editor:

You rightly call upon the Department of Energy (DOE) to dump the polygraph ("Faulty lie detector," Jan. 6). But if the DOE should end its reliance on polygraphy, so too should everyone. These same faulty lie detectors are wrongly relied upon by federal agencies like the CIA, FBI, NSA, and U.S. Secret Service, in addition to numerous state and local police and fire departments.

AntiPolygraph.org, a non-profit, public interest website created by polygraph victims to expose and end polygraph waste, fraud, and abuse, is sponsoring an on-line petition calling on President Bush to issue an executive order halting all federal polygraph screening (http://www.petitiononline.com/antipoly/petition.html). I encourage all to sign.

And in view of the National Academy of Sciences' findings, Florida's senior U.S. Senator, Bob Graham, as the current chairman and presumptive vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in the next Congress, should be taking a leading role in putting a final end to polygraph screening. AntiPolygraph.org has proposed an amendment to the 1988 Employee Polygraph Protection Act that would do just that (http://antipolygraph.org/ceppa.shtml).

George W. Maschke
Co-founder, AntiPolygraph.org