Continue reading ‘An Attempted Entrapment’ »]]> In May 2013, I was the target of an attempted entrapment.¹ Whether it was a federal agent attempting to entrap me on a contrived material support for terrorism charge or simply an individual’s attempt to embarrass me and discredit AntiPolygraph.org remains unclear. In this post, I will provide a full public accounting of the attempt, including the raw source of communications received and the IP addresses involved.

As background, it should be borne in mind that a federal criminal investigation into providers of information on polygraph countermeasures, dubbed “Operation Lie Busters,” has been underway since at least November 2011, when an undercover U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent, posing as a job applicant, contacted Chad Dixon of Marion, Indiana for help on passing the polygraph. In December, 2012, Dixon pleaded guilty to federal charges of wire fraud and obstruction of an agency proceeding, for which he has been sentenced to 8 months in federal prison.

Doug Williams of Norman, Oklahoma, a former police polygrapher who has been teaching people how to pass polygraph examinations for some three decades and operates the website Polygraph.com, was also the target of a sting operation and in February 2013, U.S. Customs and Border Protection executed search warrants on his home and office, seizing business records. He has been threatened with prosecution but to date has not been charged with any crime.

With this in mind, I received a most curious unsolicited communication on Saturday, 18 May 2013 from <mohammadali201333@yahoo.com>. The message was sent to my AntiPolygraph.org e-mail address <maschke@antipolygraph.org> and was titled “help help help please” (155 kb EML file.) The message body was blank, but there was a PDF attachment with a short message written in Persian, the language of Iran:

I know Persian, a fact of which the writer was evidently cognizant. Here is a translation:

Greetings and respect to you, Mr. George Maschke,

I am Mohammad Aghazadeh and have been living in Iraq for five years. I am a member of an Islamic group that seeks to restore freedom to Iraq. Because the federal police are suspicious of me, they want to do a lie detector test on me. I ask that you send me a copy of your book about the lie behind the lie so that I can use it, or that you help me in any other way. I am very grateful to you.

The book to which the message refers is The Lie Behind the Lie Detector (1 mb PDF), AntiPolygraph.org’s free e-book that, among other things, explains how to pass (or beat) a polygraph “test.” Factors that made me highly suspicious about this message include:

• Why would someone who supposedly fears the police send an unencrypted e-mail acknowledging that he’s a member of an Islamic group that is trying to change the government of Iraq?
• Why would such a person also provide his full name and how long he’s been in the country?
• To my knowledge, there aren’t any Iranian-backed Islamic groups seeking to “restore freedom to Iraq.” In fact, Iran and Iraq have good diplomatic relations.
• Why did this person ask me to send a book that is freely available on-line? Note that this message didn’t ask for a “Persian edition” of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

I suspected the message was a likely attempt to set me up for prosecution on charges of material support for terrorism (or something similar).² It seemed highly unlikely that the message could be genuine. Nonetheless, about half an hour after receiving the message, I provided “Mohammad Aghazadeh” the same advice I would give to anyone accused of a crime who has been asked to take a polygraph test:

Dear Mr. Mohammad Aghazadeh,

Our advice to everyone under such circumstances is not to submit to the so-called “test” and to consult with a lawyer and comply with applicable laws.

George Maschke

Evidently, that response was not satisfactory, for the following day, Sunday, 19 May, about 24 hours after receipt of the first message, I received the following reply (11 kb EML file):

It reads:

Greetings and great respect, Mr. Maschke,
I am very grateful to you for your reply about the lie detector test.
I am not in circumstances where I can refrain from taking the test.
I saw your book on the Internet, but because I don’t know English, I wasn’t able to use it.
I will be very grateful to you if you would send me the Persian edition of it.
I don’t know how I will pass the test.
They have frightened me greatly. What am I to do????

I replied, “Unfortunately, said book has not been translated to Persian.” I have received no further communication from this person.

I Googled the e-mail address <mohammadali201333@yahoo.com> and found no mentions. Both e-mail messages originated from the same IP address: 159.255.160.115.
This address traces to Arbil (also spelled Erbil), Iraq, where the United States has a consulate.

I checked AntiPolygraph.org’s server access log for the IP address 159.255.160.155, and here is what I found:

9 May 2013

08:24:48 (GMT), someone at this IP address landed on AntiPolygraph.org’s publications page after a search on Google.iq (search terms unknown) using Google Chrome under Windows NT 6.1 (Windows 7).

08:24:59 lands on home page after searching Google.iq for: george maschke antipolygraph.

08:25:37 downloads The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

10:09:15 fetches The Lie Behind the Lie Detector a second time after searching “george counter polygraph” but this time with Firefox 2.0.0.12 under Windows NT 5.1 en-US (Windows XP 32-bit).

18 May 2013

07:04:18 Lands on home page after unknown search on Google.iq using Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 under Windows NT 6.1 (Windows 7).

07:04:41 Fetches Federal Psychophysiological Detection of Deception Examiner’s Handbook.

07:05:46 Fetches The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

07:06:27 Fetches DoDPI  Law Enforcement Pre-Employment Test Examiner’s Guide.

07:06:55 Fetches DoDPI Interview and Interrogation Handbook.

07:07:29 Fetches DoDPI Numerical Evaluation Scoring System.

11:07:04 Returns to home page using Microsoft Internet Explorer 10 under Windows NT 6.1.

11:07:08 Views recent message board posts. (Note: this action suggests the visitor is familiar with the site.)

11:08:10 Does a message board search (search terms not logged by server).

11:08:25 Searches message board again.

11:08:36 Searches message board again.

11:08:48 Searches message board again.

11:09:27 Searches Google (terms unknown) and lands on message board thread, Al-Qaeda Has Read The Lie Behind the Lie Detector.

11:10:02 Gets message board thread, Al-Qaeda Documentation on Lie Detection (which is linked early in the previous thread).

Note that both of the foregoing message threads include accusations against me of disloyalty to the United States.

11:10:34 Gets document Al-Qaeda Documentation on Lie Detection.

11:10:41 Returns to message board thread, Al-Qaeda Documentation on Lie Detection.

11:30:20 Last load of any page.

The browsing behavior documented in the server log does not suggest to me an individual who doesn’t know English. Also, the use of different web browsers and operating systems suggests to me that the IP address might belong to an organization rather than an individual.

I also found a few other visits from other nearby IP addresses (first three numerical blocks of the IP addresses are the same):

On 3 May 2013 at 10:51:20, IP 159.255.160.5 landed on an image of Tyler Buttle after searching Google.iq with an iPhone for “photo+sebel+can+sex”.

On 7 May 2013 at 18:08:25, IP 159.255.160.80 searched Google.iq for unknown terms and landed on the blog post Is Patrick T. Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants? using Firefox 20 under Windows NT 5.1 (Windows XP).

Twenty-six seconds later, at 18:08:51, the same IP moved on to the blog post Polygrapher Patrick T. Coffey Threatens Lawsuit, Demands Retraction.

I can well understand why someone in Iraq might search for sexy pictures of Sibel Can, a Turkish singer. (The searcher, who misspelled “Sibel,” must have been disappointed to find a picture of Tyler Buttle instead.) But why would anyone in Iraq be interested in Patrick T. Coffey, a private polygraph examiner based in Burlingame, California?

Photograph posted by Patrick T. Coffey to Facebook on 1 May 2013. The Arabic caption under the American and Iraqi flags reads: “Together We Achieve Success”

Coffey has done contract work in the Middle East before, and I wondered whether he might have been on contract in Iraq during the relevant period. Coffey lost his contract for pre-employment polygraphs with the San Francisco Police Department in the aftermath of S.F. Weekly’s reporting about bigoted and intemperate remarks he made on AntiPolygraph.org. Coffey clearly despises me, as you’ll observe from comments he posted under the nom de guerre TheNoLieGuy4U in the message thread Al-Qaeda Has Read The Lie Behind the Lie Detector. Those comments begin at page 2 and include a demand to know whether I have “personally ever translated or assisted any person in the translation of anti-polygraph materials or literature into Arabic, Farsi [Persian], or any other language?” (As if that were some sort of a crime. In fact, I haven’t.)

I was able to confirm that Coffey was indeed in Iraq for three weeks, including the relevant period when the visits to AntiPolygraph.org were made and the e-mails were sent. I called him on the morning of 26 May to ask whether he might have enlisted the aid of a Persian-speaking colleague while in Iraq in a personal effort to test and perhaps discredit me. Coffey denied any involvement with, or indeed, any knowledge of, the e-mails. He even refused to confirm that he had been in Iraq.

Coffey did volunteer that he understands from hearsay that the Department of Defense has an “open case” about me with respect to “the countermeasure question.” His implication was that it’s a criminal case. However, I have been out of the Army reserve for nine years and am not subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice.

So was this attempted entrapment part of the U.S. government’s Operation Lie Busters, or the intrigue of a polygraph examiner with an axe to grind, or possibly a combination of both? I don’t know, but I welcome comment from any readers who might.

1. McClatchy newspaper group investigative reporter Marisa Taylor first reported on this matter on 16 August 2013 in “Seeing threats, feds target instructors of polygraph-beating methods.” The present article explains this incident in fuller detail.
2. I should note that an “Islamic” group is not necessarily a terrorist group, or even a militant one, though I suspect that in the sender’s mind, they are the same thing.

Continue reading ‘Polygrapher Patrick T. Coffey Threatens Lawsuit, Demands Retraction’ »]]>

Patrick T. Coffey

Polygraph operator Patrick T. Coffey of San Francisco has threatened AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke with a defamation lawsuit. In a letter (877 kb PDF) dated 4 September 2009 sent by U.S. mail and fax, Coffey’s attorney, Carleton L. Briggs, demands “a full and complete retraction” of the 20 August 2009 blog post, “Is Patrick T. Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?”

The letter, ominously titled “Coffey v. SF Weekly, Maschke, et al.” begins (hyperlinks supplied):

I represent Patrick T. Coffey, the subject of an article entitled “Is Patrick Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?” which appeared on your blog on August 20, 2009. Your article referred to, and contained a hyperlink to, an article entitled “The Lie Detective” by Matt Smith in the August 19-25 issue of SF Weekly, Volume 28, Number 30. I enclose a copy of your article and of the SF Weekly article, which quotes both you and your blog.

It should be noted that the SF Weekly article does not quote this blog. Rather, it quotes posts that Coffey made to the AntiPolygraph.org message board. Briggs continues:

The SF Weekly article attributes various quotes and opinions to Mr. Coffey, some of which are not his and some of which are taken out of context to make him appear prejudiced. For example, Mr. Coffey did not refer to any such questions or topics as “Are you racist? A dissembler? A bully?”, and there is no professional in his field who would ever test with such questions, which are not testable subjects with the polygraph.

It is true that these exact questions would not likely be asked in the context of a pre-employment polygraph examination. But while the question, “Are you a racist?” might not be asked in those terms, until recently the Los Angeles Police Department asked applicants the following relevant question while strapped to the polygraph: “Based on your personal bias, have you ever committed a negative act against anyone?” And while “Are you a dissembler?” might not be asked in those words, the question “Did you ever lie to get out of trouble?” is a commonly used probable-lie “control” question. Likewise, while “Are you a bully?” might not be asked so bluntly, the LAPD asks applicants, “Have you physically harmed a significant other during a domestic dispute?”

Coffey’s lawyer continues:

The SF Weekly article attributes to Mr. Coffey controversial views about the changing national face of Holland and France, when in fact he told Mr. Smith that this was based on a “60 Minutes” story he had watched and that, in context, the comments were made on your blog about your possible perceptions….

The SF Weekly article quotes two posts that Mr. Coffey made to the AntiPolygraph.org message board under the moniker, TheNoLieGuy4U. The first quotation is from a post Coffey addressed to Maschke on 17 March 2005. Coffey wrote: “I doubt even without the polygraph that you could now meet security criteria to serve in any capacity given your choice to ‘work’ in socialist Holland, which like France is losing it’s idenity [sic] to Islamic Immigration there.”

The second quotation in the SF Weekly article is from a post Coffey made on 28 May 2005. Coffey wrote, among other things, “George should stay in Holland or some other Socialist nation. He is apparently more comfortable in a nation like that, or France, which has lost its/their respective identities to massive Arab/Islamic immigration.”

Nowhere in either post did Coffey make any reference to any 60 Minutes story. And while Mr. Coffey may now profess that he was commenting on George Maschke’s “possible perceptions,” others might reasonably conclude that Coffey’s posts provide more insight into his own perceptions. Attorney Carleton L. Briggs continues:

…The SF Weekly article labels Mr. Coffey as a “peculiar choice” by the SFPD, when in fact by all measurable criteria he is a highly qualified professional with twenty-three years of experience. The SF Weekly article questions Mr. Coffey’s contract with the SFPD, saying the issue should be raised because Mr. Coffey’s alleged bias and prejudice may make the polygraph tests he administers unreliable. You are quoted therein as saying, “He’s got a lot of biases coming to the table. To have someone with that mentality screening police applicants is inappropriate.” Your blog also questions Mr. Coffey’s fitness to screen police applicants.

Indeed. The bigotry in Patrick Coffey’s posts to the AntiPolygraph.org message board speaks for itself. It calls to mind the prejudice of those who in the early 20th century lamented that Germany had “lost its identity” to “massive Jewish immigration.” Briggs continues:

The SF Weekly article falsely states that Mr. Coffey paid $10,000 to settle a claim that he had performed a voice-stress analysis on a subject without permission. Your article does, as well. In fact, Mr. Coffey has never performed any such voice-stress analysis, and he never paid any such settlement.

The SF Weekly article states that “according to court records,” Coffey ended up “paying a $10,000 settlement” to Jesus Guerrero, who in a 2003 lawsuit (1.1 mb PDF) alleged that “Mr. Coffey told Mr. Guerrero that he was submitting him to a lie detector (i.e., voice stress analyzer) test, which testing was performed without Mr. Guerrero’s permission.” AntiPolygraph.org has obtained a copy of a court order (90kb PDF) implementing a settlement agreement between Guerrero, Coffey, and the latter’s erstwhile employer, Triad Consultants. According to the order, Coffey and Triad Consultants were to pay Guerrero $10,000.

It’s certainly possible, as Mr. Briggs avers, that Mr. Coffey “never paid any such settlement.” But on 15 April 2005, Coffey and Triad Consultants were ordered to pay it by California Superior Court Judge Ronald Evans Quidachay. Coffey’s attorney continues:

Finally, the SF Weekly article suggests that Mr. Coffey isn’t bigoted against Arabs and Muslims who happen to be fee-paying representatives of regimes which condone torture, but that he may be against ordinary Arabs and Muslims with their minds set on a career with the San Francisco Police Department. As a matter of fact, Mr. Coffey has never failed an SFPD applicant of Arab extraction or of the Muslim faith. Devout Muslims actually do quite well in such tests, as they tend to have a conservative lifestyle which does not conflict with being in law enforcement.

Again, the anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigotry inherent in Coffey’s posts to the AntiPolygraph.org message board speaks for itself.

Coffey’s lawyer goes on to cite examples of defamation case law before making the following allegation and demand:

Your statements, repetitions and implications were materially false and damaging to Mr. Coffey, as they indicated that he is a bigot and that his alleged prejudice against Arab immigrants makes him unsuitable for his profession as a polygraph consultant to the San Francisco Police Department. As a result, Mr. Coffey has been receiving death threats, seven so far.

Without conceding that any demand for retraction is required, I hereby demand that, within ten days of the date hereof, you publish a full and complete retraction.

Please have your counsel contact me if he or she wishes to discuss the terms of the retraction.

AntiPolygraph.org condemns any threats of violence against Mr. Coffey. But AntiPolygraph.org co-founder George Maschke has made no materially false statements regarding him. There will be no retraction.

It should be noted here that in addition to his expressed views about European countries “losing their identity” to Arabs and Muslims, Coffey has made numerous intemperate remarks about Maschke–an honorably discharged US Army veteran–threatening him in 2008, for example, “You are no patriot, you piss me off, and I and others have the resources to deal with you if and when it ever becomes necessary. Stay in Holland you traiterous [sic] bastard.”

Continue reading ‘Is Patrick T. Coffey Fit to Be Screening Police Applicants?’ »]]> Following up on his previous article on the San Francisco Police Department’s reliance on polygraph screening–despite broad scientific consensus that it is invalid–S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith takes an in-depth look at the man the SFPD has hired to polygraph applicants: Patrick T. Coffey, who received “$81,463 during the last fiscal year” for his services. Smith addresses bigoted postings that Coffey made to the AntiPolygraph.org message board in 2005 under the moniker “TheNoLieGuy4U” and also reveals that Coffey paid $10,000 to settle a 2002 lawsuit by a man who alleged that Coffey “performed a voice-stress-analysis exam on him without permission.”

Continue reading ‘S.F. Weekly Rips San Francisco Police Department’s Reliance on Polygraphy’ »]]> In a well-researched article, S.F. Weekly reporter Matt Smith critically examines the SFPD’s reliance on polygraphy for applicant screening, despite it being completely discredited among scientists. Those interviewed include retired FBI scientist Dr. Drew Richardson, Professor Stephen Fienberg, who headed a National Academy of Sciences panel that  reviewed the scientific evidence on polygraphy, and polygraph operator Patrick Coffey, who’s company conducts polygraph examinations for the SFPD (and who in the past has trolled AntiPolygraph.org’s forums under the moniker, TheNoLieGuy4U).