" Under the charge against us the normal rules of evidence are suspended. For us they don't exist.WE are charged not with committing espionage, but with conspiring to commit espionage. Since espionage itself does not have to be proved, no evidence is required that we have done anything. All that is required is evidence that we intended to do something. And what is this evidence? Coincidentally enough under the law the testimony of our so-called accomplice is considered evidence. "

― E.L. Doctorow , The Book of Daniel