AntiPolygraph.org

Retired CIA polygrapher John Sullivan has opined that "...an honest subject has no better chance than a dishonest subject of getting through the process."

antipolygraph.org/s/sullivan

Number of Federal Polygraph Operators Reportedly Down About 30%: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

Number of Federal Polygraph Operators Reportedly Down About 30%: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

Unfortunately, the fact that polygraph tests are long discredited hasn't the slightest bit curbed the U.S. government's enthusiasm for them.

Our understanding is that the polygraph "tests" conducted within the Department of Defense concerned an investigation into who leaked details of a planned briefing for Elon Musk to the press, and not for "loyalty" per se. Either way, any reliance on polygraphs is misguided: they don't work.

Have any other federal agencies, such DHS or FBI, received similar White House instructions to stop using polygraphs to go after journalistic sources?

Indeed, there is no documented instance of polygraph dragnet ever solving a federal leak investigation.

The White House directive to the Department of Defense stopping the polygraph dragnet in the Musk Pentagon briefing leak investigation doesn't go far enough. The polygraph should be scrapped for all purposes throughout the federal government. It's a completely invalid, fraudulent pseudoscience.

White House Reportedly Directed Department of Defense to Stop Polygraphing for Journalistic Sources

White House Reportedly Directed Department of Defense to Stop Polygraphing for Journalistic Sources: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

Unfortunately, a century of promotion by government and popular media has persuaded many Americans that polygraph results are meaningful.

White House Reportedly Directed Department of Defense to Stop Polygraphing for Journalistic Sources

White House Reportedly Directed Department of Defense to Stop Polygraphing for Journalistic Sources: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

Hegseth team told to stop polygraph tests after complaint to White House The polygraph tests of Pentagon officials occurred as the defense secretary sought to stamp out unflattering leaks to the media.

...Hegseth’s use of polygraph tests to search for people leaking information to the news media was stopped at the direction of the White House after a senior adviser to Hegseth raised alarm to senior officials there about being targeted...

No paywall link - archive.today/RMfZ4

There is no documented instance of a polygraph dragnet ever solving a federal leak investigation.

Polygraph "testing" certainly lends itself to such abuse. The polygraph can provide cover for arbitrary and capricious personnel actions.

Learn How to Pass (or Beat) a Polygraph Test Polygraph 'testing' is a pseudoscientific fraud that depends on the polygraph operator lying to and deceiving you. Discover the lie behind the lie detector.

When reporting on polygraph "testing," it should be noted that polygraphy has no scientific basis: it's inherently biased against the truthful, yet trivially easy for liars to beat. For a quick debunking of this pseudoscience, see our homepage:

antipolygraph.org

In any reporting about polygraph "testing," it should be noted that polygraphy has no scientific basis, is inherently biased against the truthful, and yet is trivially easy for liars to beat. See our home page for a debunking of this pseudoscience:

antipolygraph.org

Official portrait of President Richard M. Nixon, summer 1971.

ON THIS DAY in 1971, President Richard Milhouse Nixon uttered the infamous words, "I don't know anything about polygraphs, and I don't know how accurate they are, but I know they'll scare the hell out of people."

antipolygraph.org/documents/ni...

Question: if polygraphs are so unreliable that they're not admissible in court, why do police rule in or out persons of interest based on the results of a polygraph?

Whatever else is true, the National Research Council has advised against polygraph screening by federal agencies because of its low accuracy.

Why do you believe that this bill would result in more people with criminal backgrounds being hired?

Had Richard Heene actually employed polygraph countermeasures, he likely would have passed, and the polygraph operator would have been none the wiser. (No polygrapher has ever demonstrated any ability to detect polygraph countermeasures.)

Former sheriff Jim Alderden made it clear that the polygraph "test" was a ruse employed in hopes of getting an admission.

The behaviors that former sheriff Jim Alderden characterized as polygraph "countermeasures" ("tensing up, not answering questions directly...and doing some mind exercises, as well as...pretending to fall asleep") are not in fact anything that anyone who understands polygraph methodology would do.

Not only does the U.S. government still use polygraphs, but in 2025, its reliance on this pseudoscientific ritual is at an all-time high.

Unsurprisingly, it seems that there is no documented instance of a polygraph dragnet ever solving a federal leak investigation.

Polygraphs are really only "useful" for scaring admissions out of people who don't understand that they're a pseudoscientific fraud.

FBI Employees Asked on Polygraph Whether They Have Cast Aspersions on Director Kash Patel: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

Former CIA Officer Brian O'Neill on Why the Trump Administration's Polygraph Campaign Against Leakers Is Unlikely to Succeed: antipolygraph.org/blog/2025/07...

The credibility of polygraph tests has been challenged since the 1920s. It's amazing it's still being used at all. The courts don't trust them enough to accept test results as evidence, but apparently the FBI does.

I applied for the NSA a few years ago and when I had to take a polygraph, I told the tester flat out that I think it's junk science. I ended up failing the test even though I answered truthfully and could only laugh. I took it as a sign that I really didn't want the job.