Inspector General of the CIA took polygraph test
Captain’s Quarters has a good article today entitled The Inspector Gets Inspected. According to The New York Times, John Helgerson, the Inspector General of the CIA — a position appointed by the President — submitted to polygraph testing. Helgerson supervised Mary McCarthy until they discovered that she leaked classified material to the media. Here’s a teaser from Ed — go and read the rest of the article.
The application of the polygraph to Helgerson, the Times argues, is unusual and is emblematic of the new culture of secrecy imposed by the Bush administration. Scott Shane and Mark Mazzetti detail the efforts by Goss to crack down on leaks and even books and articles written by current and former CIA agents. The overall tone gives the impression that the agency and its professionals now have to suffer a culture more oppressive than anything since the 1950s, when one source (a leak!) says what went on at CIA stayed at CIA.
Well, boo hoo. I don’t know if the Times or the CIA understand this, but we are at war, and that takes precedence over the memoirs of a two-year agent or the political posturing of senior IG staff. Intelligence work, especially during wartime, requires secrecy and professionalism. If Helgerson is shocked to find himself polygraphed after one of his senior aides got unmasked as a leaker (and the Times gives no indication that he was), then he doesn’t have the first clue about investigations. Any time an office crime occurs either in government or in business, the first thing investigators want to know is whether the co-workers or management took part in it. It’s SOP, and what makes it remarkable is not that Helgerson is the IG but that his staff — which is supposed to catch leakers — released classified material to the press.
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