IDF set to polygraph soldiers to prevent media leaks

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi is redoubling the army's efforts to prevent officers from leaking sensitive information to the press. Ashkenazi has set a January 1 deadline for hundreds of officers to undergo polygraph tests as a condition for being promoted from major to lieutenant colonel.

The IDF Spokesman's Office told Haaretz that the move was part of efforts to "improve information security in the IDF," and that only those serving in "particularly sensitive and classified positions" would be subjected to the lie-detector tests. An anonymous army source, however, told Haaretz that the tests would be administered to hundreds of prospective lieutenant colonels, not only those already serving in sensitive intelligence-related posts.

The IDF clamped down even harder on leaks to the media following the 2006 Second Lebanon War, as top brass blamed both soldiers and officers for revealing sensitive information which on several occasions put troops in danger.

The tightened restrictions had other motives as well, as the chief of staff at the time, Dan Halutz, was widely perceived as seeking to thwart negative depictions of himself in the media. Halutz even ordered that hundreds of officers be prevented from making outgoing calls on their army cellular phones, ostensibly to keep them from talking to the press.

But since taking over from Halutz in 2007, Ashkenazi has waged his own campaign against leaks to the media. In one well-publicized incident, an officer who had served in the defense minister's office was sentenced to seven days' military incarceration for leaking classified information, even though at the time of the sentencing he was no longer in the army.

The officers undergoing the polygraph will be asked a string of questions, including whether they had been in contact with enemy or any other foreign agents, delivered unauthorized information or engaged in drug use.

While the military has grown stricter in its enforcement against media leaks, its policy on recreational drug use has grown more liberal. Officers admitting to one-time use of "light" drugs in the past are no longer in danger of dismissal, as they were just several years ago.

Ashkenazi has spoken on several occasions of "eliminating" leaks from the army, reportedly having concluded that the military must adopt methods similar to those used by the Shin Bet security services.