Lewes, DE -- (SBWire) -- 05/14/2013 --A recently released book by author and journalist Bob McCarty, THE CLAPPER MEMO, details the decades’ long failure of the US government-backed polygraph program, which is managed by a handful of insiders and supported by a well-funded “pro-polygraph” lobby. The book chronicles the turf-war between polygraph loyalist and backers of a competing technology; and exposes the length to which members of the US government have gone to maintain total control over military and federal truth verification operations. Bob McCarty, who spent four years investigating the motivations behind the US government’s “polygraph only” policies, has concluded the US government’s faith in the polygraph is misguided and has played a central role in the unnecessary deaths and wounding of US military members in Afghanistan and elsewhere. McCarty’s conclusions are backed by high-ranking former US military and US government officials, several of whom gave prominent endorsements to his book.
According to the US National Academy of Sciences the polygraph is scientifically unreliable and prone to high error rates, despite over 50 years of US government backed research and the expenditure hundreds of millions US taxpayer dollars. Further, little progress has been made to improve the outdated device despite generations of US bureaucrats building their careers around the apparently flawed technology. US Air Force polygraph examiners recently concluded the polygraph was little better than “flipping a coin” when used to investigate terrorist suspects in Iraq and Afghanistan. Polygraph continues to be mired in controversy and the subject of high profile law suits involving hundreds of millions of dollars.
The competing technology exposed by McCarty, known as the Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA), is more widely used by US law enforcement than the old fashioned polygraph – but off-limits to the US military units that need it the most. A recent peer reviewed and published 18-year field study of the CVSA showed the system to have an accuracy rate greater than 95%, far surpassing all other credibility assessment systems available worldwide. Additionally, dozens of other peer reviewed and published scientific studies support the efficacy of the CVSA. Currently the CVSA is used globally by over 2,000 law enforcement, military and security agencies.
One source interviewed for the book stated “Bob McCarty has connected the dots to a story that otherwise would not have made the light of day. He has exposed the ongoing and unceasing activities of a small group of bureaucrats that should outrage the entire US population. It is unconscionable that administration-after-administration has allowed this national disgrace to continue unabated for the past 50 years. The safety and security of our military members should trump the agenda of a handful of power hungry bureaucrats. The absolute faith by these bureaucrats in a scientifically unsound device has, in my opinion, caused significant damage to the reputation and security of the United States. And - in my opinion - because of the stamp of approval given to the polygraph by the US government it has caused serious damage to other nations as well. The true extent of the damage caused by polygraph will perhaps never be known, since the US government does not make public such failures. However, the cases that have come to light are a damning indictment against continued support of the polygraph by the US government. Bob McCarty should be commended for exposing this government-backed fraud.”
For further information please contact the National Association of Computer Voice Stress Analysts (NACVSA), at admin@nacvsa.org.
Media Contact: Administrator, NACVSA, 1-888-358-5025
New Book Exposes Systematic Failures of the US Polygraph Program