The statistics on the violence in Iraq tend to be all over the map, but the report provides at least a snapshot of the mayhem over there. Issued weekly, the Threat Report details attacks on Iraq Interior Ministry forces, which include the police, border guards, and facilities protection cops.

The report notes that the discovery of corpses "increased significantly again to 268 bodies," with the majority of those found in Baghdad. (Looks like that number may still be rising: Just this Monday, Iraqi police reported finding 50 more bodies overnight, scattered around Baghdad.) Of the 73 attacks that week against Interior Ministry forces, the report adds, most of them were against police. And despite a much heralded security crackdown in Baghdad, over half of those attacks took place in the city. Among the 206 casualties were 57 cops killed in action.

Improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, continue to exact a crippling toll. Forty percent of the casualties came from just six IED attacks. The number of IEDs safely identified or detonated by Interior Ministry forces averaged 26 in August, a six-month high, the report notes.

It's depressing stuff. The Iraqi police are key to any successful move toward stability in Iraq, and the constant attacks on them show that the insurgents know this. But too often it's hard to tell the good guys from the bad. U.S. officials have identified thousands of recruits with criminal records and suspect that police ranks are riddled with militia members. For more on the plight of Iraq's hapless cops, see my colleague Kevin Whitelaw's April story "Baghdad Blues." As one Baghdad police captain told U.S. News, "We have our own civil war in the Ministry of Interior." Bottom line: Look forward to more weeks like September 17–or worse.

BAD GUY OF THE WEEK: This week's choice was a no-brainer–Mark Foley, the Republican congressman accused of writing sexually explicit messages to 16-year-old pages. After being confronted by ABC News, Foley promptly resigned his seat last week. Now it's bad enough that a member of Congress appears stricken with the urge to have sex with underage boys. But what really boggles the mind is Foley's cochairing the Missing and Exploited Children's Caucus on Capitol Hill. Kudos to ABC News for exposing this guy (and a dart to the House leadership for failing to investigative him). To find the good guys in the fight to protect exploited kids, pay a cybervisit to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, whose ace investigators spend their days tracking Internet predators and their victims. And for a look at Foley's more explicit instant messaging, check out this exchange, plus a second one where he tried to arrange a night meeting with an underage page. But be forewarned: They get pretty explicit.