Posted on 04/03/2002 12:23:29 PM PST by George Maschke
FBI Investigates Employees Who Fail Polygraph Test
Wed Apr 3, 2:14 PM ET
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As many as seven FBI (news - web sites) employees with access to highly classified information face more investigation after taking polygraph tests given to tighten security following the discovery (news - web sites) of a Russian spy within the FBI, officials said on Wednesday.
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"We are heartened that less than 1 percent of the 700 raised issues that require further investigation," he said, days before the release of a special commission's report on how to improve security after the Robert Hanssen (news - web sites) spy case.
Mueller acknowledged that security had not been a "principal priority" at the FBI, but added, "We've moved to address that."
One of the steps adopted after the Hanssen spy case, which badly damaged the FBI's reputation, has been expanded use of polygraph tests for current FBI employees.
Hanssen, a 25-year FBI agent and counter-intelligence expert, pleaded guilty to spying for Moscow and is awaiting sentencing next month. His lawyer has said Hanssen began spying in 1979, just three years after he became a special agent.
FBI Assistant Director Kenneth Senser said polygraph tests have been given to about 700 employees since July. The "overwhelming majority" successfully completed the test.
Senser, a career CIA (news - web sites) official now in charge of the FBI's security division, said the 1 percent, whose responses during the test triggered concern, still were being "worked with."
THOUSANDS MAY FACE POLYGRAPH TEST
Senser said the next step under consideration would be a "limited expansion" of the polygraph tests, adding a "few thousand" to those who must be tested.
The commission, chaired by former FBI and CIA director William Webster, has studied how to improve security for more than a year. Webster headed the FBI during some of the time when Hanssen, one of the most damaging spies in U.S. history, committed his espionage.
The report is expected to be released late this week or early next week.
In the mid-1990s the FBI started giving polygraphs to new hires and some agents working on highly-sensitive cases. But Hanssen and other long-time agents were never tested.
In other steps, Senser said the FBI was moving to limit access online. Hanssen combed through the FBI's computer system to get classified information and check whether he had fallen under suspicion, according to court documents.
Senser said the FBI also has reduced "by a couple of thousand" those within the agency who have access to the most sensitive information.
Mueller said polygraph tests were just "one indicator" of when follow-up investigation would be required. Mueller said polygraph test involved "a narrow set of questions."
He said the FBI awaited the report's recommendations on new financial disclosure requirements, which could reveal unexplained sources of money. Hanssen sold national security secrets for $1.4 million in cash and diamonds.
To learn about the fraud on which polygraph "testing" depends (little understood by the public at large) and to learn how anyone -- truthful or not -- can pass a polygraph "test," see AntiPolygraph.org's free book, The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.
http://antipolygraph.org/hearings/senate-judiciary-1997/richardson-statement.shtml
Polygraph testing is not a valid diagnostic technique, and like astrology or tarot card reading, it has no knowable accuracy rate. However, because the methodology by which truth vs. deception is inferred in a polygraph "test" is knowable and simple countermeasures are readily available, it's a relatively simple matter to pass whether or not one is telling the truth. (Again, see The Lie Behind the Lie Detector to find out how.)
Relying on such pseudoscientific procedures for national security purposes is simply stupid.
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