A 2000 Senate report on misconduct by FBI agents that has been sitting in the wings is ready for release:

A leading Republican senator charged Wednesday that the Federal Bureau of Investigation may have long tolerated egregious, even criminal conduct by some of its agents, including rape, embezzlement and extortion.

The senator, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, released an internal report prepared by the F.B.I in 2000, which examined 107 instances of serious and sometimes criminal misconduct by its agents over a 16-year period.

The shocking report is a laundry list of horrors," Mr. Grassley said in a letter to the F.B.I., "with examples of agents who committed rape, sexual crimes against children, other sexual deviance and misconduct, attempted murder of a spouse, and narcotics violations, among many others."

The reaction of the FBI?

Cassandra Chandler, an F.B.I. spokeswoman, said that the agency "takes seriously its commitment to holding its employees to the highest standards of conduct" and had taken strong steps to strengthen its disciplinary process.

And this from an unnamed FBI offiical:

You won't find any organization that doesn't have problems. People have weaknesses, and when the bureau becomes aware of that, we act on it."

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