THE FOURTH DEGREE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605750036-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: January 31, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605750036-3
7 ARTICLE EARED NEW YORK TIMES
3 31 January 1985
ON PAGE A2 -
ESSAY I William Safire
The Fourth Degree.
Kara Walters on ABC this, week:
And what if he failed that test, she
asked in an equally innocent tone
would he resign?
"Un, yes," the--Be ense Secretary
said.. I'monly here to help serve the
President, and if I felt that there was
something that impeded that, I would .
WASHINGTON
'd take a lie-detector test any
time anybody wants me to,"
Caspar Weinberger told Bar-
So is the rubber hose and bright
light that used to be known as the
Third Degree. The polygraph, or fear-
implanter, is a modern instrument of
mental torture: to force it on a sus-
pect is to give him the Fourth Degree.
Such threat of torture has no place in
the American system of justice.
For years, officials at the Depart-
ment of Defense who lost sight of the
principles of individual freedom they
are supposed to be defending, and
who gave no thought to the security'
r . - s . . ??~ are : pressed for the use of polygraphs on.
this Administration's most avid
before answering, in order to "turn
around"
polygraph tests. After these
G.B. agents in their all-American polygraph, which Congress's Office
` training dachas" pari g to be- of Technology Assessment had al-
come "illega s"m tie tLS arelnow ready found inaccurate and poten
to control perspiration and tially dangerous.
eartbeat, to pop a Miltown before' Senator Jeff. Bingaman of New
.lygrap
lis poses a new security risk. asked for a large-scale "test" of the
proponents of polygraphs - ma-
chines that measure nervousness and .
are untruthfully called "lie detec-
tors." They believe the much-ex-
panded use of these machines on gov-
ernment employees and defense con-
tractors will plug leaks.
But in fact, -the new reliance on
_
spies learn how to fool the machine,
ley can penetrate to higer levels of
classified information. (The C.I.A.
may have fallen behind its Soviet
counterrppa__rts in mastering such bio-
feedback techniques.)
Skilled liars can fool the polygraph,
and nervous truth-tellers can have
their careers. jeopardized by the falli-
ble machine, which is why Federal
courts do not accept its results as evi-
dence-Why, then, is Mr. Weinberger,
so eager to routinely hook up thou-
sands of employees?
. "Look, everybody in law enforce-
ment knows how inaccurate these
things can be," an intelligence source
explains, "but that isn't the point.
Most people think the machine works,
and that scares them into confessing.
Its threat is a great deterrent."
(Scoop) Jackson at the Senate Armed
Services Committee, no foe of. a,
strong defense, always blocked them.
Last year, with Senator Jackson
gone and Senator Sani Nunn asleep at
Mexico, a former state Attorney Gen-
eral who knew of the polygraph's dan-
ger to the innocent, objected. The.
Pentagon, with then-Chairman John
Tower's cooperation, took the junior
Senator into camp with a "compro-
mise" yearlong test of 3,500 employ-
I think he is profoundly mistaken;
this is the nose under the tent for the
polygraph crowd, and - unless
stopped - will lead to. the demand
that tens of thousands of. citizens sub.
mit to fluttering as a .,.test of their :
patriotism. And Mr. Weinberger will
continue to say he is merely following
the "direction" of Congress.
Chairman Jack Brooks at .House
Government Operations is not as easy
to snooker as Senate Armed Services,
and may find a way to have the year-
long test reviewed .by independent.
evaluators.
To . Mr. Weinberger; this isa
"minor matter." Yet machines; as
'Dr. Frankenstein and ?. Mr: Nixon
learned, can turn on their creatorsn
foolishly promoting trial by. machine,
the Secretary of Defense poses a dan-
ger. not only to your liberty and mine,
but to his colleagues and himself. O
The trap was simple: the Pentagon
would give the tests, assess its oWn
results, and then decide, if the poly-
graph was a success, to be applied de-
partment-wide, to its contractors and
ultimately throughout 'the Govern-
ment. Can anyone doubt what 'the
self-serving conclusions of such' a
"test".would be? ..
As a result, the Defense Depart-
ment can now "flutter" thousands?gf
scared employees, asking such .rat=
on-whistle-blower questions as "Do
you know of someone who has passed
information to the media?"
Of course, the Defense Secretary
sees it differently: "This is a;useful
experiment," he assures me, "per-
fectly voluntary,.and there is no play
I know of other than to report the re-..
sults to the Congress."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/06/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605750036-3