So, back in 2017 I took a tentative job offer from the DIA, and later in the summer I went through the psychological evaluation and polygraph. However, my polygraph came back as “inconclusive” and the test administrators (I did it twice) were saying I was doing something to throw off the test and needed to fess up. I have no idea what could have done it, my only assumption is that since I’m on anti-anxiety meds (they knew this) it threw off the readings. I refused to admit to reading anything about throwing off the test (I did say that I knew about Ana Montes and how she lied through the test because of a lecture on counter-intelligence as part of a intelligence class I was in for an MA program) since I didn’t actually do anything. They did the classic “We know what you did, you know what you did, tell us what you did” line.
Flash forward to the past week and I received my FOIA request for everything regarding my test, and the test results were that I showed “no opinion” to the standard CI questions.
My questions are as follows:
1)Am I one of the unlucky 10% that gets inconclusive results, and am pretty much doomed to never get a clearance as a result?
2)Is there anything I should do for my next polygraph? Have a lawyer present? I’d love to have an advocate present considering how hard the exam administrators were trying to get me to admit to something I wasn’t doing. It should go without saying that I wasn’t trying to hide or deflect anything.
3)I know that there’s no recourse for this particular job, but does this mean I’m blacklisted? The letter where they rescinded my offer didn’t say I’d failed any background check or anything like that.
4) Has this happened to anyone else?
No. It’s worse than that. “No opinion” is different than “inconclusive,” and polygraph operators use this designation when countermeasure use is suspected.
No federal agency will allow you to have a lawyer present in the polygraph suite. What you can and should do is to learn about the pseudoscience of polygraphy and carefully think about whether you’re willing to subject yourself yet again to this demeaning ritual.
Yes. You’re blacklisted. DIA’s polygraph countermeasure accusation will follow you for life and will likely preclude you from any position with a polygraph screening requirement.
Yes, what happened to you has happened to many others. False accusations of lying and using countermeasures are common in federal polygraph screening programs. See the statement of former DIA employee Christopher J. Du Jardin for a recent example.
There was another post on here about someone who was forced to sign a statement during their poly… did that happen to you?
I don’t know how “common” such situations are but it does happen. I know someone who was accused of using ‘countermeasures’ and it messed up his existing secret clearance. But eventually he got the secret clearance reinstated.
Yes, I had to sign a form before the second test. I was so convinced it was just a fluke that I didn’t think NOT to sign it because it was pretty clear if I didn’t sign it I’d get the boot immediately. Unfortunately, I don’t remember exactly what the form was, I’m pretty sure it was basically “yep, I know the stakes for round two” but maybe it had some weird clause where I admitted that I was trying to throw off the test?
Well . . . Here’s the deal: You have no right to a clearance. Policy has clearly been and will continue to be, that “it must be clearly in the interest of national security to grant the applicant access to classified material.” If they THINK that you are cheating on your poly, it is not “clearly in the interest of national security.” It makes the situation “unclear”.