Anthony Martin wanted to serve his country in time of war.

So the man born as Lee Mark McKnight went back to the FBI, the agency that used to handle him as an informant, and asked to be put to work in the weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. It was an intriguing move, for a man who had previously been in and out of the federal witness security program.

As McKnight/Martin put it in a lawsuit filed last January: After having left the witness security program in 1992, he contacted the FBI after 9/11 and was assigned the code name "PABST." Assigned to work under the control of a Las Vegas-based special agent, Herb Lasko, McKnight/Martin says he worked as a cab driver, so he could "keep tabs on drivers of certain religious and/or ethnic origin who might be a danger to America."

Then: a rookie Las Vegas cop discovered McKnight's/Martin's real identity when running a background check. It could have been disastrous for the man who had informed against real bad guys. He sued the Marshals Service and others, claiming they had exposed him to danger by failing to protect his real identity.

Long story short: on Friday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan dismissed the case; in part, because administrative remedies had not been exhausted.