Word: polygraphers
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Opponents called the directive a threat to constitutional rights. Correctly. Nor did top political aides at the White House, who undoubtedly account for more sensitive leaks than lower-level bureaucrats, relish the thought of facing polygraph straps and lifetime censorship. Last week the President backed down, suspending the controversial provisions until a "bipartisan solution" to the problem of safeguarding classified information can be worked out in Congress. Orwell's worries about 1984 apparently failed to take into account that it was an election year...
Millions of others subject to the surveillance sections could find their careers impaled upon he detector rests of dubious reliability. Though a recent Office of Technology Assessment study concluded "no scientific evidence exists to establish the validity of polygraph testing," with accuracy fluctuating wildly from 17 to 99 percent officials could face reassignment or demotion for refusing to take the test. Perhaps, though, accuracy is not the intent as Richard Nixon put it in the Watergate Tapes. "I don't know whether the detector tests) are accurate or not, but it doesn't make any difference. Test them...
Reagan's extreme reliance on his staff leaves him badly exposed when they muff their jobs. Last fall Administration officials quietly confirmed that then Middle East Envoy Robert McFarlane favored stepped-up U.S. military action in Lebanon. Clark, overreacting to the leak, drafted an Executive Order mandating polygraph exams to track down the source. The order could have subjected most of Reagan's top associates to lie-detector tests. At least one Cabinet resignation was threatened. "It was a black day around here," says a White House aide. Administration "pragmatists" intervened to get the foolish scheme canceled. Reagan...
...vigorously pursued the investigation, interviewing members of the President's senior staff and Cabinet for up to two hours each. But there is no evidence that polygraph tests have yet been used. Secretary of State George Shultz was among those who let the White House know that he would resign before allowing himself to be strapped to such a machine. Presidential Counsellor Edwin Meese last week stressed that the leak could have jeopardized McFarlane's life in the volatile Middle East. But some aides suggested that the probe was part of the protracted power struggle between Baker...
...staff since 1981. Last March, Reagan signed a controversial directive permitting the use of lie detectors on the 2.5 million federal employees who hold high security clearances. Despite these actions, the leaks have continued and no sources have been uncovered. In fact, the prospect of facing a polygraph has done little except provoke discontent within the Administration. Said one outraged official: 'If Reagan cannot trust his own people without giving them a lie-detector test, then he ought to fire them...