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Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

antipolygraph.org

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Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#121

Post by gbcfghhjj »

keepamovin wrote: post #100
fmajid wrote: post #63

Polygraphs are junk science. I wonder why they haven’t graduated to fMRI. Can’t be for lack of funds. My guess is the polygraph bureaucracy is what’s known in Washington as a self-licking ice cream cone.

Perhaps the point is it's "confession theatre". You're put in a stress position, worried that the "magical machine" can read your darkest secrets, and told that everything will go easier if you're just honest, and so that's why you're inclined to spill them. Which is what they are trying to get you to do.

Yes and also consider they want to assess how well you stand up to interrogation generally

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#122

Post by enneff »

snickerbockers wrote: post #106

Oh boy, something on the HN front page i have direct personal experience with (CIA polygraph exams in general not this specific one). >Then she asked if I'd read about polygraphs. I said I'd just finished A Tremor in the Blood. She claimed she'd never heard of it. I was surprised. It's an important book about her field, I would have thought all polygraphers knew of it. They'll also ask you about antipolygraph.org whi…

> part of the polygraph test involves a blood pressure cuff which is put on EXTREMELY tight, far more so than any doctor or nurse would ever put it on. It is left on for the entire duration of the test (approximately 8 hours). My entire arm turned purple and i remember feeling tremors.

Why would you subject yourself to this?

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#123

Post by cindyllm »

gbcfghhjj wrote: post #121
keepamovin wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the point is it's "confession theatre". You're put in a stress position, worried that the "magical machine" can read your darkest secrets, and told that everything will go easier if you're just honest, and so that's why you're inclined to spill them. Which is what they are trying to get you to do.

Yes and also consider they want to assess how well you stand up to interrogation generally

[dead]

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#124

Post by keepamovin »

gbcfghhjj wrote: post #121
keepamovin wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Perhaps the point is it's "confession theatre". You're put in a stress position, worried that the "magical machine" can read your darkest secrets, and told that everything will go easier if you're just honest, and so that's why you're inclined to spill them. Which is what they are trying to get you to do.

Yes and also consider they want to assess how well you stand up to interrogation generally

Hm, what's the relevance for people who don't leave office?

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#125

Post by itishappy »

BlueMacaw wrote: post #86
tokenless wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He is a good writer. I also read to end and my attention span isn't good! I think the switching between what happened, what he felt and just the plain "daily WTF" rediculousness of the situations is what kept me locked in.

>He is a good writer. I assumed the author was a she…

The title is "A CIA Analyst Shares Her Polygraph Experience" so it appears you are correct. I'd assumed incorrectly, so appreciate the discussion!

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#126

Post by awakeasleep »

delichon wrote: post #61
b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #48

I'm always surprised to hear that a government agency administers polygraph tests in something as serious as hiring but then I remember the CIA also spent millions of dollars trying to develop telekinetic assassins and train clairvoyants to spy on the Kremlin.

The polygraph doesn't have to emit any useful data at all to be very useful in interrogations. Like a bomb doesn't have to have any explosive in it to clear a building. Interrogation is a head game and a complicated box with knobs and buttons and maybe even blinking lights makes a fine prop. And there's enough ambiguity in it that it's easy for the operator to believe it helps. Like a dowser with their rods, a clergy…

Everyone repeats this old canard but no one has any evidence even anecdotes to show that a polygraph machine is better than any other way to head fake someone in an interrogation

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#127

Post by bigiain »

delichon wrote: post #61
b00ty4breakfast wrote: post #48

I'm always surprised to hear that a government agency administers polygraph tests in something as serious as hiring but then I remember the CIA also spent millions of dollars trying to develop telekinetic assassins and train clairvoyants to spy on the Kremlin.

The polygraph doesn't have to emit any useful data at all to be very useful in interrogations. Like a bomb doesn't have to have any explosive in it to clear a building. Interrogation is a head game and a complicated box with knobs and buttons and maybe even blinking lights makes a fine prop. And there's enough ambiguity in it that it's easy for the operator to believe it helps. Like a dowser with their rods, a clergy…

I'd like to say "I'm always surprised to hear that a government agency administers institutionalized mental abuse". But I'm not surprised at all.

ACAB, Including being B to other C.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#128

Post by bigiain »

driverdan wrote: post #116
XorNot wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That research was oriented towards making sure it wasn't possible though. You're saying "of course it isn't" - but how do you know that? At the time the Soviets had the same sort of projects. So until you're sure it's not possible, the potential capability is an enormous threat if it is. How they went about that research is where the waste creeps in.

You don't waste resources researching something with no plausibility or explanation as to how it could exist.

No post body was provided.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#129

Post by bigiain »

coreyburnsdev wrote: post #120
Arainach wrote: post #59

I applied for an internship with the NSA. My understanding of the process (years ago, pre-Snowden) was that they did a pass on your resume (I can't recall if there was even a phone screen), then they started background checks and if there were N internships the first N people to pass the security clearance were selected. They went through the standard stuff, interviewing my neighbors, etc. Then they flew me to Fort M…

really? working with the nsa would probably be very interesting work!

There are probably interesting jobs at drug cartels and in organised crime.

Re: Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

#130

Post by mmooss »

masfuerte wrote: post #107
halJordan wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you ever get the opportunity to read what people admit, unprompted, during these "conversations" then you'll know why they'll never go away. Stuff like, "yeah i stepped on a kitten's head once, but i was young... No i don't see why anyone would have a problem with that." No one wants that guy working at the cia.

Are you sure? Post 9/11 the CIA decided they needed to be in the business of kidnapping and torturing. They didn't seem to have any trouble finding employees to do it.

Soldiers need to kill people, but you don't want sociopathic soldiers - you want the opposite: Someone who can handle their emotions, not someone who hides from them, runs from them, or tries to bury or ignore them. The latter are not stable or reliable under stress.
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