Inside the CIA lie detector

In his memoirs, the former pilot Powers described his being carried into a room where he faced many difficult questions. The following is an article by author John Baesler, he is Professor of History at Saginaw Valley Public University (Michigan State) and the author of the book 'The Truth of Truth: Lie Detector and Civil War USA'.

The return of US pilots on Soviet soil

Powers pilot once underwent a lie detection test with a higher stake. Mr. Powers' case was not common, but the lie detector was considered a useful tool at the time, stating for many reasons that needed to be discovered.

The birth of a lie detector was meant to answer a tough Cold War problem: how Americans could fulfill their pledges against an authoritarian enemy without turn yourself into tyranny?

Pilot Francis Gary Powers held the U-2 spy plane model when he testified at the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC).(Image source: Bettmann / Getty Images).

To form this special circle, federal agencies first and foremost had to mention the CIA, when they began to use the controversial technology developed by psychologists in the early 20th century. , then the machine continued to be refined and used by police forces and private businesses since the 1920s.

Measures in the lie detector usually come from changes in blood pressure, breath depth and conductivity of the skin . but these measurements have never proven reliable markers. of deception.

Not only are emotional disorders difficult in laboratory studies, but such emotions are heterogeneous in each person and can be imitated by coping methods (such as self pinch / pinch yourself before giving feedback).

In large screening tests, it is inevitable that 'false positive results' (innocent people who are "caught" by hats are frauds). In addition, does the question of lie during a lie test indicate whether the person is inconsistent with mere technical problems?

In the final analysis, US security agencies have never come to clear definitions of the personal characteristics that a model must have. Instead, a lie detector will provide reasons to either deny security risks or deny his / her involvement.

Usefulness - appears to be more powerful than any scientific value - has come a long way to explain why a lie detector has become a standard tool of the Chinese national security state. States.

The story of pilot Gary Powers and history with the lie detector were deeply educational. From 1956 to 1960, there were 24 U-2 flights flying in Soviet airspace and gained valuable invaluable strategic intelligence on Soviet military capabilities.

But on May 1, 1960, a disaster occurred when the plane piloted by Powers pilot was shot down over the sky of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg). The US government told the story of a stray weather balloon and it took place at a time when leader Nikita Khrushchev was presenting to the world about the ruins of the downed plane, and then decided fate of the American pilot.

Gary Powers miraculously survived and was sentenced to a trial in Moscow and sentenced to 10 years in prison for espionage.

In February 1962, Gary Powers was returned to the United States by Colonel KGB Colonel Vilyam Fisher (alias Rudolf Ivanovich Abel). Returning, former pilot Gary Powers was considered a hero (but still in doubt).

Half distrustful with the return of the Soviet Union and distrust from the US public opinion, even the US National Security Agency (NSA) appeared to be half-convinced of Soviet intervention. for U-2 flights.

CIA lie detector

Radar-tracking signals indicate that pilot Gary Powers's plane has dropped to 19,812 meters. This height makes the aircraft vulnerable to surface-to-air missiles. But Powers pilot insisted that he had never lowered the altitude of the aircraft.

The detector detected a lie during a test in the 1970s. (Image source: Federal Bureau of Investigation / Wikimedia Commons)

The CIA - fearing its reputation under the pressure of the American public opinion - insisted on the innocence of Gary Powers. CIA Director John McCone has established an investigative committee under federal judge E. Barrett Prettyman, in preparation of a public statement.

The document emphasized medical tests, general examinations, an interrogation confirmed by former pilot Gary Powers 'to appear with honesty, frankness .'. Although bored with the cumbersome process of finding a lie, Gary Powers also impatiently wanted to check it out for himself. Testing is done by an expert.

During the interrogation, Gary Powers did not show any false indications during the examination.

About this test interrogation, pilot Gary Powers recalled in his memoirs: 'Frustrated by being skeptical about my reactions, I was extremely angry, shouting loudly:

'If you don't believe me, I'm ready to experiment with a lie detector!' . The words that just came out of my mouth, I suddenly regretted saying that. Who is brave enough to be able to testify that he is innocent from a lie detector? I almost fell into the trap. '

Since its inception in 1947, the CIA has been using lie detectors as part of its personnel security procedure to determine the integrity of job applicants and employees, as well as confirming good The agent's intention.

At the height of the McCarthy doctrine, the CIA increased the use of lie detectors to increase the force's standards in public opinion. To those who proposed the machine, the lie detector was promised to ensure objectivity and fairness, as well as to deter spies and traitors.

A report by the CIA inspector in 1963 emphasized that: 'We cannot achieve comprehensive security. Our open society has always had resistance to state police 'measures.

When challenged by the United States Congress, a lie detector investigation began in the mid-1960s, the CIA defended the tool in a positive way.

In 1980, the Central Intelligence and Security Commission (CISC) emphasized: 'The utility of lie detector interviews is part of confidentiality processing and has been proven by real means. experience .

These practical results, plus more than 30 years of experience, confirm that the use of security screening is unique and indispensable. '

Even so, within the CIA, there is an opinion that recognizes the best candidates and staff based on their test results. Even after decades of using lie detectors, the CIA has not been able to accurately define specific elusive terms like 'routine' and 'volunteering' in a lie detector program.

In 1974, a list of questions from lie detector testers came up with some tough questions, like: 'Will this machine help me pass the interrogation round to be accepted by the CIA? into work or not? ' or 'What if I don't pass?'.

It is also not very clear about the relevance from the evidence created during the lie detector test. In 1973, the CIA acknowledged the elusive situation. Until his death in a helicopter accident in 1977, pilot Gary Powers admitted that he was a loyal American for honesty tests.

National security issues

And in a declassified report it shows that the Kennedy administration realized that the public should understand the integrity of Gary Powers honesty, and announced that Mr. Powers had passed the test by a detector. This is part of Kennedy's communication strategy.

US police apply lie detector to check suspects.(Image source: Yahoo Finance).

Gary Powers' experience highlights three characteristics of a lie detector used for CIA 'national security' purposes.

First of all is the statement of the proponents of the machine that the test can be a testimony to excuse and excuse loyal citizens and turn out to be less honest;

Secondly, while the machine is based on eloquent volunteering, in fact under the pressure of the test it is also said that people lose their freedom; Thirdly, machine-based tests are often a means to disguise rather than reveal the truth of events.

The lie detector also used haunting questions during the Cold War, and the traumatic experience in the test faced a wave of intense protests from American lines of thought.

Journalists Joseph and Stewart Alsop likened the lie detector to embracing an octopus with electrical tentacles that created an overwhelming impulse to soothe the octopus.

Even the former CIA's chief of counterintelligence, James Olson, called the tests using a lie detector "very awful but necessary."

"They bring a sense of rudeness, discomfort and sometimes humiliation. A very brutal process." Another painful question: Is there ever a lie detector that exposes a Soviet spy?

Certainly no spy was caught by the machine, and the most devastating case involved agent Aldrich Ames, who had passed two machine-controlled rounds when he delivered the information of 'death'. about US operations in the Soviet Union for information processors.

While the case of agent Aldrich Ames almost made the reputation of the lie detector possible, this technology was suddenly noticed after the September 11 incident and the wars. The picture continued thereafter in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Once again the lie detector machine reappears as a way to demonstrate elusive values ​​such as loyalty when performing risky tasks in employee screening and counterintelligence.

As soon as the history of the lie detector becomes clearer, U.S. policymakers are putting their trust in this technology to handle thorny political issues, even though they themselves Ask questions about repairs in a private way.

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