Ritter, 41, who says his goal in going to Baghdad was to "wage peace," makes an unlikely anti war activist. He grew up in a military family and became an intelligence officer after college, where he studied Soviet history. Even early in his career, Ritter courted controversy. In 1991, after his first marriage — to his college sweetheart — ended, he married a Russian woman he met while posted in the former U.S.S.R. Despite initial suspicions that the translating service she worked for was being used by the Soviets to gather intelligence through "attempted sexual compromise," he satisfied himself that "this did not appear to be the case." He dismisses as "a form of harassment" what he says is an ongoing FBI probe of his wife based on allegations that she was a KGB spy.