FLASHBACK: DNI Clapper Hopes Lie Detector Tests Will Plug Government Leaks

[Originally published on February 18, 2015]

Any government employees considering leaking classified documents had better not forget to practice their polygraph skills first. They’ll need to pass a lie detector test to get a job in the first place after U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper issued a guidance Wednesday instructing the intelligence community to use polygraphs while screening possible hires.

Potential employees will take a test that “shall cover the topics of espionage, sabotage terrorism, unauthorized disclosure or removal of classified information (including to the media), unauthorized or unreported foreign contacts, and deliberate damage to or misuse of U.S. government information systems or defense systems,” states the guidance, which was first noticed by Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News.

Under the terms of Clapper’s guidance, personnel are to be instructed that disclosing information to “an unauthorized recipient” is explicitly prohibited. The definition includes anyone who doesn’t have the necessary security clearance and without a need to know, especially “any member of the media.”

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