This is just beyond belief. By this judge's logic, if you walk into a bank intending to cash a check, then decide while standing in line to stick the place up, you get to keep the money because you didn't start out with intent to rob.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria VA. Remember that name. You want to be in his jurisdiction just in case the chance to lie, cheat, steal, and defraud happens to come along and you want to do it all with judicial blessing.

A federal judge has dismissed a civil case against a military contractor accused of improperly billing Iraq reconstruction authorities for tens of millions of dollars worth of security services that it did not provide.

U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III in Alexandria said there was no evidence that Custer Battles, a firm started by Army veterans Scott Custer and Michael Battles, committed fraud under a $16.8 million contract to provide security at the Baghdad International Airport in 2003.

Saturday News Dump, hidden under JonBenet's rotting little corpse. Have I got your attention now? Good, because you need to pay attention to this. Small headline in WaPo this morning:

Verdict Against Iraq Contractor Overturned

What is this? Our old pals Custer Battles, war profiteers of the stinkiest ilk, looters of uncounted millions of US dollars from the US (Republican) controlled "Coalition Provisional Authority". You know why they are being given an oopsie on this theft? Because a judge has ruled that the Coalition Provisional Authority was not an agency of the US Government:

Although a jury found the company guilty, U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III ruled on review that the firm could not be sued under the federal False Claims Act because of the ambiguous structure of the authority, which issued the contract. The judge also concluded that the way in which the company had been paid distanced it from the U.S. government.