A Casualty of Chaos

A CIA agent's death demonstrates the dangers of U.S. efforts to help the former Soviet states

Fred Woodruff was just another diplomat until he died. But when CIA director James Woolsey flew to Tbilisi to collect his body last week, it was not hard to deduce that Woodruff was actually a U.S. spy. His death dramatized America's increasing involvement in the volatile remnants of the old Soviet empire. As Washington tries to boost its ties with these disorderly states, even to mediate their conflicts with Russia, Woodruff's slaying raises a sharp warning: these lands are increasingly chaotic, and chaos has its perils.

Woodruff, ostensibly a regional-affairs officer assigned to the new Tbilisi embassy but actually the CIA's...

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