After reading this, I was shocked.

The soldiers, some as young as 20, are to be getting a weeks' training with this device before they are able to use it. And "triage" making a large group into a smaller group. All to be decided by a young person with a machine.

I can understand using it to maybe let somebody onto the base, but to use it at a terrorist scene. It's unthinkable. Would 100 people be standing in a line waiting to have the lie detector test after a bomb blast so a smaller group could be made out of the large group. I don't think so. They'd all be running about with shock. With all the mayhem and confusion everybody will be stressed and probably unable to answer questions anyway.

I think it's a bad idea and should be left to the professional polygraphers. Anyway, polygraphs aren't allowed as evidence in most courts anyway. Why should they be allowed at a roadside bombing????

Nah, chuck these little machines out and let the soldiers beat confessions out of the terrorist suspects.

First and foremost I think it important to understand how lie detectors function. They measure things like minute rise in pulse and skin temperature that tend to occur when someone is lying. They are faulty for the most part in stressful situations.

Consider for a moment that a soldier, someone armed and in your face with a gun is probably one of the most stressful events one might be faced with.

The questions won't really matter, what will matter is that the person being questioned already might be feeling terrified, heart rate elevated, afraid if they do not meet the expectations of their interrogator that they very well might be shot, will most likely have a false reading on such a device. (and in all probability would have a false reading under those circumstances.)

This does not even take into account that there have been many documented cases of people beating the lie detector (especially those trained in deception such as spies) Although it does not take such training to fool the lie detector.

The worst case scenario is that you are innocent, but give for whatever reason a false positive, and get blown away because the soldier feels justified since you were lying.