> Well, following his explanations, you can fail the polygraph and just do it again. He didn't say you had an arbitrary number of opportunities to pass, simply

> Well, following his explanations, you can fail the polygraph and just do it again. He didn't say you had an arbitrary number of opportunities to pass, simply that the screening (of which polygraph was one of many he mentioned) is such that it's not as if NSA analysts are able to simply wander their way into the NSA so that they can then spy on the people. That doesn't mean people can't make it through all the screenings (just ask Snowden), simply that it's one of many safeguards that are put in place to make it so difficult to land an NSA job for nefarious reasons that the many other layers of oversight and controls should be adequate to prevent gross abuses.