Thread by @doctorow

For years, @ap_org has campaigned against the junk science of "lie detection," publishing leaked polygraph operators' manuals to show that the whole thing is basically an interrogation with some fancy props - basically, lie-detectors are E-meters for non-Scientologists.

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The implications are profound, because lie detectors are used to decide who gets a job, or a promotion. They're used to decide who goes to prison, and whether they get out again. The manuals reveal that polygraph outcomes are basically whatever the operator says they are.

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Antipolygraph.org started out with a bang about 20 years ago, publishing the leaked 1991 Department of Defense Polygraph Institute (DoDPI) interrogation manual, "Interview & Interrogation"

antipolygraph.org/documents/dodp…

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Since then, the DoDPI has changed its name to the National Center for Credibility Assessment, and Antipolygraph is on the case, with some more up to date leaks from the NCCA.

The NCCA 2013 Interview & Interrogation manual:

antipolygraph.org/documents/ncca…

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And the 2013 NCCA Counterintelligence Post-Test Interview Supplement:

antipolygraph.org/documents/ncca…

Both stamped "For Official Use Only."

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"No part of this handbook may be reproduced or distributed in any form or stored in a database or retrieval system without the written permission of the Director of NCCA."

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Like the 1991 manual, these are a bonanza of junk science, impressionistic and vague instruction, and operator leeway that allows the user to treat the polygraph as a Ouija board, interpreting its squiggly line to reinforce their own biases.

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Fun fact about lie-detectors: you can beat them pretty reliably by rhythmically clenching your anus (no, really):

antipolygraph.org/pubs.shtml

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I love this fact so much that it's a plotpoint in Homeland, the sequel to Little Brother (audiobook by Wil Wheaton, whom I also made recite 1,000 digits of Pi):

craphound.com/category/homel…

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Buttholes don't appear in Attack Surface, the third Little Brother book, out in October, but there are many other little bits of infosec, physsec and counterintel weirdness for your delight:

read.macmillan.com/promo/attacksu…

eof/