Fun and Games with the FBI

The Memory Hole has posted a file entitled the "FBI Beta Report" (Behaviorial and Ethical Trends Analysis) which is an internal FBI report detailing dozens cases in which FBI agents were dismissed for behavior "detrimental to the agency." from 1986 to 1999. According to the Associated Press, as archived byInformation Clearing House, this report was hushed up for three years because it kept delicate details about bureau misbehavior under wraps.

Those details included reports of "agents fired for egregious misconduct and crimes, including drug trafficking, attempted murder, theft, misuse of informants and consorting with prostitutes.1"

IFCH quoted Senator Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who released the report, and he:

found that about one in 1,000 agents was dismissed for serious misconduct or criminal offenses by the FBI during the period examined, from 1986 to 1999. The average was between eight and nine per year.1

IFCH continued:

Although the numbers were small, the FBI's attempts to keep the report's disclosure from the public and Congress since its completion in June 2000 is raising questions among FBI critics about an attempt to avoid embarrassment. Grassley, a senior member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a letter to FBI Director Robert Mueller that he was concerned about "a lack of response to the findings and recommendations, a general lack of support for the project and even efforts to prevent its completion." Grassley said the report "almost never saw the light of day." It was only provided to legislators in July 2003, months after it was requested, and was accompanied by a Justice Department letter urging that it be kept confidential.1

The specifics are frightening and sound more like a frat party than a government employee evaluation. According to the Beta report, agents were dismissed for:

• Rape.
• Reckless endangerment of family, witnesses, emotionally and physically abusive to family members, using Bureau weapon to shoot at family members.
• Physical and/or sexual abuse of minors.
  
• lying.
• Stealing government property.
  
• Drinking or drug use on duty, gambling addiction, and/or Alcohol Abuse.
• Using government property to receive sports betting materials.
  
• Selling drugs.
  
• Calling Phone-sex hotlines while on-duty.
• Public exposure, masturbation and, needless to say, lack of discretion.
  
• Falsifying receipts for expense accounts and/or travel reimbursements.
  
• Shoplifting.
• Illegally disclosing sensitive information. (For instance telling your employer about your psychiatric history).
• Obstruction of Justice.
  
• Abusing the power of the position by engaging in illegal background checks of citizens.
• Embezzlement.
• Engaging in espionage against hostile foreign governments and smearing famous media personalities.
• Manslaughter.
• 
  

You can see that this report is either A: very disturbing reading; or B: More entertaining than the latest edition of The Weekly World News. Regardless of your POV, this is an important file to read as you need to remember that these agents are human and disturbingly fallible as are all of our law-makers and law enforcement representatives.