Despite a recent warning from the National Academy of Sciences that polygraph testing is unreliable, the U.S. intelligence community continues to rely on polygraphs to assess the credibility of prisoners, agents, informants, and even its own employees. But a recently translated article titled “The Myth of the Lie Detector” that was originally published in an Arabic-language jihadist magazine dispels any doubt that America’s Islamist adversaries understand that polygraphy is a sham:
The lie detector or polygraph is in reality a method used by the enemies of God in their prison cells and detention camps to put psychological pressure on the mujahidin during the interrogation of those they take prisoner in order to collect as much intelligence information as possible. Security and intelligence agencies – especially Western ones – have spun a halo of lies around it to obfuscate the truth, so that many think that a person being tested will only be saved by the truth, and nothing but the truth!
The article goes on to offer ideas on how to beat the polygraph. The full translation (and original Arabic) are available here.
