Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

Personal Statement of a CIA Analyst

4 October 2018

CIA Applicant Screening

I first took a polygraph when I applied to the CIA and went through the applicant screening process.

To prepare for the test, I read A Tremor in the Blood by David T. Lykken. The book described the use of control versus relevant questions as well as countermeasures such as butt-clenching. I had no desire to use countermeasures. I wasn't out to "beat" the test: I wanted to understand how it worked. A future colleague at the Agency advised me, "Spill your guts." I thought it was good advice, and I planned to follow it.

I knew I was taking a risk in applying to the Agency. I worked as a defense contractor on a project for the CIA, so I already held CIA TS/SCI clearances. If I failed the polygraph, I could lose my clearances, and I might lose my job as well.

I flew to Northern Virginia for two days of pre-employment screening. A bus took us from the hotel to a nondescript building in Vienna. The examiner was a young woman. She asked me to sign a consent form and told me not to talk about the polygraph with anyone else.

In the pretest interview, the examiner asked, "Did you make any false statements on your application?" I said, "Yes. Under height and weight, I put 130 lb. I actually weigh 134 lbs." She laughed. Then she asked if I'd read about polygraphs. I said I'd just finished A Tremor in the Blood. She claimed she'd never heard of it. I was surprised. It's an important book about her field, I would have thought all polygraphers knew of it.

She wired me up, and the polygraph began. My hand turned purple, which hurt terribly. My body twitched from the exaggerated stillness the test required. Halfway through, the examiner left the room, saying she had to show the charts to her supervisor. I came to think of this as the What will it take to get you to buy the car? part of the test. I waited twenty minutes or so, resisting the urge to press my nose against the one-way mirror and peer into it through cupped hands.

The examiner came back. "You're having a problem with one of the questions. Do you know which one?" I had no idea. I'd answered all of them truthfully. She said, "How about, 'Have you ever lied to your boss?'" I said I hadn't. She pressed me until I came up with an occasion when I'd passed my boss in the hall. She said, "How are you?" and I said, "Fine." But I wasn't fine, I was in the middle of a cancer scare.

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