Psychic’s Counterterror Work Goes Unrecognized

(CN) - A self-proclaimed psychic who says the U.S. government owes him for helping presidents track down al-Qaida operatives had his lawsuit for $50 million dismissed by the Court of Federal Claims.

Anthony Bussie claimed that over eight years his psychic services contributed to counterterrorism efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan in pursuit of "high-value targets" and "9/11 mastermind[s]."

The psychic named Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as defendants, in addition to the government officials he claimed hired him after he attended government training sessions in Burlington, N.J.

The government moved to dismiss the pro se suit, and the Washington, D.C.-based court agreed, finding that Bussie failed to support a plausible claim for breach of contract.

"Mr. Bussie merely offers the unembellished allegation that he has performed psychic work for the government and that the government owes him $50 million dollars for such work," Judge Charles Lettow wrote.

"Mr. Bussie does not present to the court, in either his complaint or his response to the government's motion to dismiss, a factual account that would allow the court to infer that Mr. Bussie could satisfy the required elements for a showing of an express or implied-in-fact contract with the government," the judge added.

The court also dismissed the psychic's takings claim under the Fifth Amendment, concluding that Bussie failed to produce a valid property interest "based upon an appropriation of a contractual right to compensation for his psychic work."

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