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DIA Polygraph Countermeasure Case Files Leaked
George Maschke writes AntiPolygraph.org (of which I am a co-founder) has published a set of leaked Defense Intelligence Agency polygraph countermeasure case files along with a case-by-case analysis. The case files, which include polygraph charts and the exact questions used, suggest that the only people being "caught" trying to beat the polygraph are those using crude, unsophisticated methods that anyone who actually understood polygraph procedure and effective countermeasures (like, say, a real spy, saboteur, or terrorist) would ever use. AntiPolygraph.org has previously published polygraph community training materials on countermeasures that indicate they lack the ability to detect countermeasures like those described in our free book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (PDF) or in former police polygraph examiner Doug Williams' manual, How to Sting the Polygraph. Williams, who was indicted last year after teaching undercover federal agents how to pass a polygraph, is scheduled to stand trial on May 12 in Oklahoma City.
No people want to feel like they are safe at the revocation of all freedoms.
Feeling safe is the most important thing to them. Help me feel safe Government! Bad people are allowed to buy electronics without a license! Bad people can build things! They must be TERRORISTS!
Save us from the people that have an IQ above 100 oh holy government!
Dumb people want security Smart people want freedom.
Sadly the smart are outnumbered by the dumb 3 to 1
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
He put a curse on my magic anti-unicorn rock and now it doesn't work. The bastard!
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Hope they don't catch me cheating the magic crystal ball. They might send the leprechauns after me.
that's just it, right? the ultimate polygraph countermeasure is to understand it's a psychological trick to get you to confess to things you wouldn't have confessed to otherwise. if they get you to confess to something, then you "failed" the polygraph. If they can't manipulate a confession out of you, then the polygraph is "inconclusive". it's impossible to "pass" a polygraph test.
an exception may be one where a) the testers actually believe in the polygraph test themselves and b) they don't need a confession. like imagine a job interview at ABC Shizzface Company. some company head hocho dodo says we should do polygraph, so middle management dodo gets a consultant and totally believes anything the consultant tells him because he believes that polygraphs are objective truths. Then they don't need to get a confession, they just need to get any sense of unease and they will deny you the job.
Then why is someone on trial for teaching how to beat them? Makes no sense, unless they are beatable, in which case they are only security by obscurity - aka useless against a real threat.
Describing my training as teaching "countermeasures" so liars can pass the polygraph "test" is the same thing as describing the polygraph as a "lie detector"! Both descriptions are PURE, UNADULTERATED BULLSHIT! The word "countermeasures" can only be used to describe polygraph chart manipulation by the subject of a polygraph "test" when two conditions are met: 1) The polygraph "test" must be proven to be 100% accurate and reliable as a "lie detector", and 2) the person is attempting to deliberately lie. There is never a case where BOTH of these conditions are met. In other words, you could only claim "countermeasures" are being used to thwart the polygraph operator's ability to detect deception IF the polygraph is able to detect deception accurately 100% of the time and that that deception would be detected were it not for the use of "countermeasures" by a person intent on being deceptive. But, since many people know that just telling the truth only works half the time - i.e. the US Supreme Court, and the NAS report, among others, saying it is no more accurate than the toss of a coin - then a prudent person would try to mitigate the very strong probability of being falsely branded as a liar by learning how to produce a "truthful" chart. That would not be using "countermeasures" - that would be using common sense!
Why do polygraph operators tell people not to research the polygraph before they take their test? It is very simple - the only way they can intimidate people with the polygraph is to keep them ignorant about how it works. When polygraph operators say I teach people "countermeasures" in order for them to "beat the test". I simply say, that's bullshit, because polygraph operators routinely call truthful people liars - and my technique is the only way for honest, truthful people to protect themselves from being falsely accused of lying. Go to the MEDIA page and watch the CBS 60 MINUTES investigative report I helped to produce and see the proof yourself - three out of three polygraph operators called three different truthful people liars on a crime that never even happened! You may also enjoy watching me prove THE LIE DETECTOR IS BULLSHIT on Showtime's PENN & TELLER: BULLSHIT!
So, let me emphasize this - I DON'T TEACH SO-CALLED "COUNTERMEASURES" - I simply teach people how to ALWAYS PASS by knowing how to show a perfect "truthful" polygraph chart! The word "countermeasures" is a word that has been misappropriated by polygraph examiners - it is used to describe what they say is a means to thwart their ability to detect deception. But polygraph operators have always maintained that they can tell when a person is using these so-called "countermeasures". If that is true, how can anyone use them "beat" the test? But, for the sake of argument, let me ask a few more pertinent questions: If people can indeed be taught to use "countermeasures" to "beat the test", wouldn't that prove the polygraph is not a "lie detector"? Does the validity and reliability of the polygraph test demand that the subjects of the test must be ignorant about how it works? If anyone could be taught how to produce and/or prevent a reaction on the polygraph at will, wouldn't that make the whole idea of a "lie detector" a fraud? And wouldn't polygraph operators have to admit their little machine is actually just a sick joke - and that the polygraph instrument is simply a prop used by an interrogator to frighten people into making admissions and confessions? And would it not be prudent for the government to quit wasting money on something that is nothing but a fraud and a con job? The fact is the answer to all these questions is a resounding YES!
Polygraph operators do not want to debate the validity of the polygraph as a "lie detector" because they will lose. And these con men certainly don't want to answer any of the questions I have posed! They know they cannot prove the polygraph is valid and reliable as a "lie detector", and they know they can't justify their actions - so they just say that people who
Save us from the people that have an IQ above 100 oh holy government!
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Sadly the smart are outnumbered by the dumb 3 to 1
Your grasp of statistics confirms which group you belong to, Lumpy.
Most developed countries do not recognise a polygraph in court, or in science.
And haven't.
For centuries.
I wonder why the US still does.
Just saying.
I was reading the documents and went to download the software to read the polygraph results when I got "your ip has been logged ... software for ..." and I had left my referrer field on! Guess im now a registered dissident. oopsies!
What, are you a kangaroo?
This is not a "yelling fire in a crowded theater" situation involving immediate clear harm. Rather, it's about freedom of the press in exposing polygraphy as a pseudoscience that is as valid as drowning women to find out if they are witches. The polygraphy book does this by showing exactly how polygraphy doesn't work.
The Government is using its substantial power to suppress this information contrary to the mandatory dictates of the First Amendment. When the US government ignores the Constitution, that is a far graver threat to America and its purported values than any terrorist or double agent could ever achieve, because it decouples the massive power the Feds have from any limitations at all -- it is in essence, the destruction of America from within.
Think about it like this: There is USA, the place, and America the vision as embodied by our Constitution. Given the US Federal Gov's all-out assault on the Bill of Rights, it's fair to say that _it_ is the greatest threat to the freedoms we as Americans are said to hold dear, in favor of protection of USA the place. It is of course a totally dubious assertion that the pseudoscience of polygraphy is even effective at protection of USA the place, but even if it was a valid technique, we should be asking if we want to have a Federal Government that is totally unrestrained in its exercise of power. If that is where we are heading, we should just acknowledge that post-constitutional USA is just another authoritarian dictatorship, and quit giving lip service to being a constitutional republic that values freedom and justice. It would save a lot of people a lot of prison time to know we are just another China, and to keep their mouths shut.
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good
It is funny you're calling people "dumb," since your comment doesn't at all have any connection to the story or the events in the story.
This story is not about any of the things you talk about. It is about a guy selling anti-polygraph training, which itself is indisputably legal in the US, and who was also advertising his service as a way to defraud the FBI. That part is totally illegal, and doesn't implicate the "war or terror," or any supposed balancing between security and freedoms. Instead, it balances the freedom of the FBI to set their hiring practices against a person accused of advertising a service to assist people in tricking the FBI into hiring people they don't want to hire, and who their policies would successfully reject without this guy's services.
This particular story is about data that was leaked in relation to the case that shows that his services are probably highly effective, because everybody the government has caught cheating the test were really bad at cheating it. The test is obviously stupid and is an ineffective hiring practice. However, that in no way changes the fraudulent nature of this individual's accused actions.
Moral of the story: if you're offering innocent services, and your target demographic are criminals, don't actually advertise that your intent is to assist criminal behavior. Plausible deniability is a vital part of any attempt to do business in "grey areas." Grey areas rarely exist naturally. Being in a grey area implies that your actual intent is something illegal, but you're doing it in a way that can't be punished. In the case of assisting fraud, you just have to be subtle enough that you might have meant something else. If you think you're in a grey area but then you come right out and say what your honest intent is, well gee, now you just shined a spotlight and made it black and white.
Sadly, the ignorant outnumber the literate by at least an order of magnitude.
The lie detector itself is a fraud on the American citizen. Your example is poor. The FBI should not be allowed to use fraudulent devices in their hiring practices. It should not be considered fraud to evade the fraud perpetrated by the FBI. The entire thing comes down to might vs right. The FBI feels that whatever policy it sets is lawful, thus any break in that is a crime. We The People should remind the FBI that they have a duty to act ethically, including not using fraud as SOP.
Good-bye