The NSA requires applicants and contractors to submit to broad-ranging polygraph interrogations as a condition of employment. One contractor who has been through the experience multiple times with different agencies recently reported:
I have been accused of being a child molester, someone who views child pornography, a spy, someone who has secret meetings with foreign nationals, and of controlling my breathing during a test, among other things. I have been cursed at, yelled at, and called a jerk. I have been told that the Junior High students that I worked with at my Church were sluts who were trying to have sex with older men. I have been forced to guess bra sizes of girls in order to obtain security clearances. I have been told by government quality control that such lines of questioning are appropriate. I have seen many other very good people abused and rejected by polygraphers in a similar manner.
Yet there is broad consensus amongst scientists that polygraphy has no scientific basis, and the National Academy of Sciences confirmed as much in it’s recent report, The Polygraph and Lie Detection. Nowadays, detailed information about the unreliability of the polygraph is now available to anyone with Internet access. But a poster on the AntiPolygraph.org message board whom I trust now now reports that NSA candidates are being instructed not to research polygraphy on-line:
Just heard, from an SSO [Special Security Officer], that NSA is cracking down on people doing research on polygraphy on the Internet (nothing new). Sounds like they are pretty upset about it. In the past, we were always told not to discuss the polygraph questions, with other employees/candidates – what dumbasses we all were to be mystified by this fantasy. Now, candidates are being told not to do research on the Internet….
This calls to mind the Wizard of Oz commanding, “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain.”
