Washington ? The government’s AIDS research agency “is a troubled organization” and its managers have engaged in unnecessary feuding, sexually explicit language and other inappropriate conduct that hampers its global fight against the disease, an internal review found.

The review for the National Institutes of Health director’s office, obtained by The Associated Press, substantiates many of the concerns that whistle-blower Dr. Jonathan Fishbein raised about the agency’s AIDS research division and its senior managers.

The division suffers from “turf battles and rivalries between physicians and Ph.D scientists” and the situation has been “rife for too long,” the report concluded.

Nonetheless, the NIH formally fired Fishbein on Friday, over the objections of several members of Congress.

“Retaliation against an employee for reporting misconduct or voicing concerns is unacceptable, illegal and violates the Whistleblower Protection Act,” Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., wrote the NIH late last week.

Citing personnel privacy, NIH officials declined to address the senators’ letter or Fishbein’s termination, except to say that his last day was Friday. In the past, NIH officials have said they were terminating Fishbein for poor performance.

Fishbein, an accomplished private sector safety expert, was hired by the NIH in 2003 to improve the safety of its AIDS research.

He alleges that he was let go because he raised concerns about several studies and filed a formal complaint against one of the division’s managers alleging sexual harassment and hostile work place.

An internal report, written on Aug. 9, 2004, by a special adviser to NIH chief Elias A. Zerhouni but never made public, raised concerns that the efforts to fire Fishbein at the very least gave the “appearance of reprisal.”

The report broadly condemns the NIH’s Division of AIDS.

“It is clear that DAIDS is a troubled organization,” the report concluded, saying the Fishbein case “is clearly a sketch of a deeper issue.”

The report urged the NIH to require sensitivity training for its senior managers and provide instruction about “inappropriate personnel procedures.”