Guest host Whitley Strieber (email) was joined by author, activist, and co-founder of antipolygraph.org, George Maschke, for a discussion on how the polygraph test has been established as the de facto method of determining whether a person has spoken the truth, although the process has not been scientifically proven to be accurate. In fact, the polygraph is based on "junk science," and uses trickery to obtain unreliable results, he stated. The polygrapher asks a set of control questions in which they are deliberately trying to get the person to lie so they can compare their physiological responses to their answers of the relevant questions, he explained. But such comparisons are based on an overly simplistic methodology, which can often yield results wherein the deceptive pass the test, and those who are honest fail, he continued.
If a person is telling the truth, they only have a 50% chance of passing the test, which is no better than chance odds, Maschke noted. Further, the expectations of polygraph testers can influence the results. Interestingly, when prospective employers such as the FBI use polygraph tests to screen potential new employees, 50% of the applicants fail, but when such testing is done of current employees there is a much higher pass rate, he detailed. This suggests to him that agencies can't afford to get rid of half their staff, yet careers do still end up being destroyed, such as FBI agent Rita Chang, who failed a polygraph, though she was never charged with anything.
Maschke believes that reading body language is also unscientific, and the best interrogation method is to work with established facts, and actually befriend the person being questioned. He advises people not to take the polygraph test-- not only are the results questionable, but police sometimes use the tests to elicit confessions from suspects without having a lawyer present. Anne Strieber also participated in the conversation.
FOIA Documents
First hour guests, Dr. Roger Leir and John Greenewald of the Black Vault, talked about obtained documents from an FOIA request that show interest in alien implants on the part of the Obama administration's Office of Science and Technology Policy. Their interest appeared to be concerning why press coverage of ET topics was eclipsing Obama's health care plan, Greenewald explained. He also detailed how an Air Force memo that included policies for reporting UFOs was pulled from a government website when Huffington Post reporter Lee Speigel began investigating it.