LIE DETECTOR ORDER CALLED CIVIL LIBERTIES ISSUE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00561R000100030155-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 155
• Publication Date: March 12, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030155-7
UNITED PRESS INTERNATIONI
12 March 1983
11' AS:.INGTON
LIE DETECTOR ORDER CALLED CIVIL LIBERTIES ISSUE
JLDI RASSON
President Reagan's new directive to plug the leaks
raises serious civil liberties concerns and "smacks of a government that just
bullies its people," critics said Saturday.
Rep. Don Edwards, D-Calif., said the administration order requiring federal
employees with security clearances to submit to lie detector tests in a leak
investigation has ''a totalitarian ring to it.''
Edwards said the House civil and constitutional rights subcommittee, which he
chairs, will hold hearings.
Reagan, increasingly annoyed over leaks of classified information to the
media and others, issued the order Friday. It establishes for the first time a
standard policy on using lie detector tests.
The order requires all federal agencies to amend their policies to allow
polygraph tests and warns that workers who refuse to take a test, if requested,
may be subject to ''adverse consequences."
'
In the past, federal employees could take a lie detector test voluntarily but
were not penalized if they refused. Only the CIA, the National Security Agency
and certain parts of the Justice and Defense Departments could require workers
to submit to lie detector tests.
In addition, more federal employees having access to ultra-sensitive
classified material now must promise,to submit manuscripts to the government for
review before publication.
" Safeguarding against unlawful disclosures of properly classified
:t +,ction is a matter of grave concern and high priority for this
aCLiinistration," Reagan said in the directive affecting hundreds of thousands
o? federal workers.
But Edwards, a former FBI agent, said making polygraph tests mandatory raises
sErious constitutional questions because the procedure makes "people snitch on
themselves . ' '
In addition, he said, a polygraph is not an accurate measure of a person's
honesty and is so unreliable that the results of a test are not allowed into
Evidence in federal court cases.
' 'It just smacks of a government that just bullies its people, " Edwards
said.
David Landau, legislative director of the American Civil Liberties Union,
said the directive is a very serious civil liberties issue and part of the
Reagan administration's pattern of stopping the free flow of information.
" It is an attempt to stifle dissent within government and stop the flow of
information from the government to the American people, " Landau said.
.COAT \'U.~D
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP91-00561 R000100030155-7