Top CIA Polygraph Examiner Fails CIA Polygraph After Writing Unwelcome Book

After months of delay by CIA censors, retired CIA polygraph examiner John Sullivan’s book, Gatekeeper: Memoirs of a CIA Polygraph Examiner has finally been released. Sullivan, who in April 2007 filed a lawsuit against the CIA, recounts in his epilogue how he — who administered more polygraph examinations than any other person in the Agency’s history — himself came to fail a CIA polygraph examination during which he was interrogated about his book! While Sullivan is generally supportive of the CIA’s use of polygraphs, the book also includes pointed criticism of some aspects of CIA policy, including a chapter deploring torture as an interrogation technique. (In this regard, see Sullivan’s article, “Bush and Torture.”)