The Anti-Espionage Act

WHEREAS, John le Carre was probably right when he said that once you start leading the "inside-out world of espionage, you never shed it", and

WHEREAS, unlike our larger state counterparts we should never need to employ such illicit tactics, and

WHEREAS, it makes me uncomfortable that government spies could be among us now, unbeknownst to the general public, unaccountable to the people, and sanctioned by one individual, and

WHEREAS, Talossa is a country that should be built on trust and friendship, and

WHEREAS, these particular tactics of espionage hark back to the days of King Robert I, and

WHEREAS, it has never been known for us to implement such tactics in modern Talossa before, and we have still managed to effectively catch fraudsters, now

THEREFORE, be it enacted by the Ziu that subsection A.17 of el Lexhatx, which reads:

   Officials of the Kingdom of Talossa who create or use false identities as a means to investigate suspicious citizenship applications or other activities involving fraudulent or misleading identities or statements may, if prosecuted under this act, claim exemption from the provisions of this act by demonstrating that any subterfuge employed met all of the following criteria:
   17.1. Was in response to a suspicious circumstance, as reasonably understood;
   17.2. Was reasonably expected to be effective in uncovering fraud; and,
   17.3. Was used only for a brief time and limited to discovering suspected fraud.
   17.4. Can demonstrate that Prime Minister authorized the subterfuge and that the Minister of Defence and the Uppermost Cort were informed of the subterfuge.

is hereby repealed in full, and replaced with the following text:

   17. Charges brought under A.16 shall be heard in the Magistrate's Court, subject to appeal to the Uppermost Cort.

FURTHERMORE, A.16.2 is to be amended to read as follows:

   Uses another person's identity or uses an identity that creates the impression of another person to post or convey messages via email or on any public forum in the Kingdom of Talossa.