As Obama begins his second trimester in office, political, military and legal officials continue to discuss whether military or civilian codes of justice (or a hybrid of the two) offer the fairest, safest and most efficient means to process and try suspected terrorists.
After days of often acrimonious debate, played out against a desperate clock, as Colonel Qaddafi's troops advanced to within 100 miles of the rebel capital of Benghazi, Libya, the Security Council authorized member nations to take "all necessary measures" to protect civilians, diplomatic code words calling for military action.
These offenses are similar or identical to those which civilians would face if prosecuted under civilian criminal codes Applying the latter category of military-specific crimes to civilians is more problematic.
Each will take an oath swearing to follow a code of civilian conduct and will receive $200 and a set of civilian clothes.
During the Vietnam War, the military charged civilians under the Uniform Code of Military Justice for various crimes but was thwarted when federal courts reversed some convictions on the grounds that Congress had never formally declared war.
His order, printed in the official gazette on Sunday, amounts to a form of martial law, because it will allow soldiers under the direction of the defense minister to arrest civilians under a military code of justice.
It's barely enough to help relocate the 14,000 families who need to be moved from disaster zones such as Anibong and San Jose, he says, let alone to initiate programmes to jump start the economy, or help launch his "master plan", which takes in disaster mitigation, revamped building codes and civilian participation.
Analysts said it amounted to a form of martial law, because it allowed soldiers to arrest and try civilians under the military code of justice.
The new breed of gangster he found himself up against — the Black Liberation Army, the Disco Gang — obeyed no such code, and left civilian casualties, something he believed his relatives never did.
