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| Iraq |
| Saddam’s loyalists thwart polygraph tests |
| 2003-07-21 |
| EFL Captured Saddam Hussein loyalists in Iraq are proving adept at beating lie-detector tests, frustrating attempts to find banned weapons and to learn what happened to Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher. U.S. officials and military officers say trained interrogators in Baghdad have caught Iraqi Ba’ath Party loyalists lying while hooked up to the machine, which showed they were not being deceptive. Officials attribute the lying to many factors. They say it may have become part of the culture of Saddam’s regime to lie routinely. In other cases, the Iraqi intelligence service and Special Security Organization trained operators how to "beat" the machine. And there is the issue that polygraphs, which measure changes in heartbeat, respiration and perspiration, are simply not accurate. And then there is the other factor that they are too PC to mention. Islam sez it’s OK to lie to infidels. In one incident, an Iraqi involved in a weapons program was shown two pictures. In one, officials cut his image out of a photo of workers at a weapons factory. He agreed that the cut-out image was of him. They then showed him the full photo, with his image restored. This time, he denied that he was in the photo. The polygraph did not catch him in this blatant lie. "Lies, all lies! That’s not me, in fact, I’m not even here." "Polygraphs are being used in the interrogation process with mixed results," a military officer in Iraq said. "Many of the suspects being interrogated were formerly part of the Ba’ath Party intelligence apparatus, so they would reasonably understand how the device works." Asked to comment, a defense official at the Pentagon said, "We do not discuss such matters of intelligence as a matter of policy." I had read someplace that polygraphs were of little use on someone who was raised in a culture where lying was no big deal. Anyone have info on that? |
| Posted by:Steve |
| #10 They're Arabs for chrissakes. Lying is as easy as farting to them. |
| Posted by: Anonymous 2003-7-21 11:08:07 PM |
| #9 Need information? Give the prisoners to the Mossad. |
| Posted by: Bomb-a-rama 2003-7-21 8:56:14 PM |
| #8 af: Wow, this from the man who "sold out Israel"? I know we all don't like how he performed when Bill Clinton forced Camp David on him, but when we also consider his record prior to that ... Hero of Eretz Yisrael, anyone? (He has already recanted his premiership's dovishness.) |
| Posted by: Lu Baihu 2003-7-21 4:55:20 PM |
| #7 There was a fairly acclaimed exchange between Ehud Barak/Benny Morris and Rob Malley/Hussein Agha in the New York Review of Books about the failure of Camp David. In the course of scoring Arafat for his outsized mendacity, Barak mentioned that polygraphs are ineffectual in Arab society because, not to put too fine a point on it, untruth is integral to Arab sociey. Barak was obviously mau-maued by his interlocutors, and I thought the charge was impolitic, but in light of this, I'll rethink. |
| Posted by: af 2003-7-21 3:27:25 PM |
| #6 Now's the time to bring in the ROK. I heard stories from guys in Vietnam about how they skillfully |
| Posted by: Paul 2003-7-21 3:06:44 PM |
| #5 Polygraphs measure the nervous system response to lying. They don't work on pathological liars or anyone else who lies as SOP. I suppose a way to detect Ba'athists would be to put them in a position to lie and if there's no response, they're busted. |
| Posted by: Dishman 2003-7-21 3:06:37 PM |
| #4 If they believe the lie then it’s not a lie to them. Ergo they will pass the Poly test. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2003-7-21 2:24:48 PM |
| #3 I thought it was a proven fact that sociopaths can beat a polygraph with ease. Why waste the time? We need mustachioes and truncheons...and maybe the executioner from Blazing Saddles ("Never fear, all are equal in my eye!"). |
| Posted by: Hodadenon 2003-7-21 2:01:52 PM |
| #2 Psychopaths usually do quite well with lie detctors. |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-7-21 1:58:39 PM |
| #1 Milli and microvolt sensors should be traded in for kilovolt electrodes. Heh heh. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-7-21 12:35:43 PM |