FC: Debunking the idea of a lie detector test, by Alan Zelicoff

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

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From: Kevin Christopher <kchristopher () centerforinquiry net>
To: "'declan () well com'" <declan () well com>
Subject: Continued Controversy over Polygraphs for Congressmen
Date: Fri, 23 Aug 2002 17:48:40 -0400

Declan:

Alan Zelicoff is Sandia National Laboratories' senior scientist at the
Center for National Security and Arms Control in Albuquerque, NM. He's also
a courageous and vocal critic of the polygraph. Last year, Skeptical
Inquirer published his commentary, "Polygraphs and the National Labs:
Dangerous Ruse Undermines National Security"
(http://www.csicop.org/si/2001-07/polygraph.html). Zelicoff has been active
in many other national issues since, especially biological terrorism, but he
has been fairly quiet on the "polygraph = pseudoscience" issue -- until this
month.

Zelicoff wrote a hard-hitting op-ed column "Polygraph Hypocrisy," published
in the August 9, 2002, Washington Post. In it, Zelicoff condemns Alabama
Senator Richard Shelby for a hypocritical stance on polygraphs. Shelby
joined other senators in rejecting the recent proposal to subject members of
Congress to a polygraph, but, according to Zelicoff, he was behind
legislation for a program to polygraph 15,000 scientists at the Department
of Energy. A substantial excerpt of the Post op-ed can be found at
http://antipolygraph.org/news.shtml).

Shelby's office denies that he was behind this legislation, but Zelicoff
claims he got the info from unnamed congressional sources (see
http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/ia/news/756381news08-22-02.htm).

The public relations fallout from Zelicoff's op-ed has been interesting to
say the least. According to a story in yesterday's Albuquerque Journal,
Zelicoff claims that senior executives from Sandia and the Department of
Energy had urged him not to submit his op-ed column and, in one instance,
resorted to using what he took as a thinly veiled threat. Sandia's vice
president for public relations admits that he called Zelicoff and told him
the story of a Lockheed-Martin employee fired for comments made to the
press, but he denies that was using the tale as a threat. Lockheed Martin
manages Sandia for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security
Administration.
(http://www.abqjournal.com/paperboy/ia/news/756381news08-22-02.htm).

Current polygraph info, links and more at http://www.antipolygraph.org/.

Regards,

Kevin Christopher
Public Relations Director
Skeptical Inquirer
P.O. Box 703
Amherst, NY 14226




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