Government to Give Fewer Lie Detector Tests

[kskiska]

The Energy Department said yesterday in a surprise announcement that it was sharply cutting the number of lie detector tests it would give to people with access to nuclear secrets, particularly at the nation's weapons laboratories.

The deputy energy secretary, Kyle E. McSlarrow, said at a Senate hearing that the new policy was likely to reduce the number of people given polygraph tests to 4,500, mainly in sensitive arms and intelligence posts, from some 20,000 now.

"No one," Mr. McSlarrow said, "has suggested that we abandon their use, or that we hire people and entrust them with national defense information with no prior checks or reviews whatsoever."

But he acknowledged that the department, which runs the nation's nuclear weapons laboratories, had faced many criticisms of the polygraph technique in the last year and had come to agree with some of them. Thus, he said, officials proposed "substantial changes" in the tests' routine use for trying to ferret out spies.

In 2001, Congress instructed the Department of Energy to adopt widespread polygraph screening in reaction to the case of Wen Ho Lee, the scientist at the Los Alamos weapons laboratory in New Mexico who was suspected of being a spy but was freed from jail in September 2000 after admitting to a security violation. That order raised an outcry from experts who ridiculed lie detector tests as pseudoscientific and a potential threat to national security.

more…
http://nytimes.com/2003/09/05/politics/05LIE.html?hp

[goforit]

1. Lets all just be wide open and share everything......Call OPERAH!!!!!

LOL!!!!

All Cheating allowed!!........just call us:
"1-800-NEO-CONS".....(This is not a real #)

[dixiechiken]

2. My first thought was ....

...that they were just going to assume everyone was guilty and leave it up to them to prove their innocence. :evilgrin:

[PsychoDad]

3. Polygraph tests are inaccurate.

Coin toss's or palm reading may me more valuable :silly:
Seriously, look this up on the web. The supreme court stated that a ploygraph was as useful as a coin toss.

[markbark]

4. A coin toss?

C'mon... I thought they were at LEAST as accurate as consulting chicken entrails :crazy:

--MAB

[Maeve]

6. I agree--they only work when people believe in them

And should not be confused with actual evidence.

[zekeson]

7. I'd like a reference on that

Having read extensively I think the polygraph can be a pretty useful tool - when used in conjunction with other data - never in isolation. I think you are overstating the Supreme Court decision.

[drscm]

5. Did too many of Bush's appointees fail? eom

eom