Terrorism lends urgency to hunt for better lie detector

USA Today ^ | November 5, 2003 | Richard Willing

[George Maschke]

PHILADELPHIA

[George Maschke]

The polygraph, which the U.S. Government currently relies on to detect deception, is simply not reliable. It has no scientific basis and is easily beaten through the use of simple countermeasures that even experienced polygraph operators cannot reliably detect. (Note that Al-Qaeda has studied how to beat the lie detector.)

In the ongoing war on terrorism, we cannot afford to rely on such pseudoscience as the polygraph. We don't need to wait for a working lie detector to be invented before ending our reliance on one that is bogus.

[Vaduz]

The best lie detector is a rubber hose.

[George Maschke]

The best lie detector is a rubber hose.

No, it isn't. Torture may be useful for getting the guilty and innocent alike to confess, but it is not an effective way of determining truth versus deception. "Rubber hoses" have no place in a "Free Republic."