What's really sad about this is that all of these federal agencies, the journalists reporting on them, and the public at large, continue to take it as a given that the polygraph is a useful and reliable tool that does what it says on the tin. Yet there remains precious little credible science to support that.<p>It's downright absurd that people are having their info passed around these agencies, and being treated as inherently suspect, simply for investigating methods of 'fooling' what is ultimately a glorified stage prop.
<i>Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests. The officials then distributed a list of 4,904 people – along with many of their Social Security numbers, addresses and professions – to nearly 30 federal agencies</i><p>So, what does this mean? They got a list of 5000 people that bought a book [edit: or in touch with the author]. And put them all on a "blacklist"? ... For "future reference"?
<i>"You have access to all of this data – all of their financial records, all of their telephone records, all of their transactions . . . ," Customs official John Schwartz said in a June speech to police polygraphers that McClatchy attended. "Then we can look at that list and determine for ourselves if we are good or not good at detecting these countermeasures."</i><p>The countermeasures in question concerned beating a lie detector test. It's a very short step to the countermeasures being any civil protests.
"Federal officials gathered the information from the customer records of two men who were under criminal investigation for purportedly teaching people how to pass lie detector tests."<p>What? How is that illegal?
I've heard they were under scrutiny because they were looking into a book of which the exact title is: The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism, by Emmanuel Goldstein. That's not goodthink.
What you mean about polygraphs is not the important thing here. It is the idea that if you have read or written something the government does not like, you end up on a blacklist that bans you from many jobs. This is totalitarian ideology regardless of how democratic the US is otherwise. I find it quite scary, especially given that the authorities also have the means to more or less keep a complete list of what you read, at least if you read it or ordered it through the internet if they so desire.
Wow. Obstruction? Because book? I would be really curious to see the warrant application for the customer records of the book's authors. Was there really legitimate need for that, or did the prosecutor just say "terrorist" and that was that? I am really struggling to come up with reasons to remain in this country.<p>EDIT: Removing some of the emotion.
They didn't bother linking to it, but the same news outlet gave more information back in August [1] naming Doug Williams as the other person instructing how to pass polygraphs. Another article released by a local news outlet two days later [2] stated that he was sought for questioning but not charged with any crime.<p>As for the other guy, he wasn't convicted of writing a book on fooling the polygraph. According to the prosecuting attorney [3], he was travelling around the US giving one-on-one advice to clients who wanted to pass the polygraph for $1-2k plus travel expenses each, receiving specific details about each case, instructed them to lie and provided instruction on exactly how to conceal those details. I think in this case the feds definitely have reasonable suspicion to believe that his clients are guilty of perjury or falsifying testimony in order to gain employment with the federal government, and they had enough evidence to show that he knowingly aided them. I'm not surprised at all that they took his business records for further scrutiny.<p>[1] <a href="http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/16/199590/seeing-threats-feds-target-instructors.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2013/08/16/199590/seeing-threats-...</a><p>[2] <a href="http://www.news9.com/story/23178002/authorities-investigate-ok-instructor-teaching-polygraph-beating-methods" rel="nofollow">http://www.news9.com/story/23178002/authorities-investigate-...</a><p>[3] <a href="http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/pr/2013/oigpr_090613.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.oig.dhs.gov/assets/pr/2013/oigpr_090613.pdf</a>