Hanford activists got a rude shock with publication in the Oct. 26 Federal Register of a new mission proposal for the Fast Flux Test Facility (FFTF): to produce Plutonium 238 (Pu238) for the ever-more-militarized space program. The proposal, conditional upon approval of the controversial plan to restart the reactor for tritium production, was given a comment period of only seven additional working days, until Nov. 4. (It has since been extended till January). The proposal was particularly odious since it came in the wake of new Dept. of Energy Secretary Bill Richardson's trip to Seattle and Hanford in mid-October, along with Patty Murray photo-ops, pledging a new spirit of openness and cooperation within the department. But not, apparently, with Hanford stakeholders, none of whom--including officials from Washington or Oregon, let alone the 8,400 people who publicly commented on FFTF last Spring--were notified of the Pu238 plan. As Gregory deBruler of the Hanford Public Interest Network noted in a scathing letter to Richardson, the sweeping proposal could only be interpreted as an attempt to "sneak one by" the public.--Geov Parrish

Overshadowed by Lewinskiosis and electoral punditry, not much has been made of the last-minute federal budget compromise last month between Clinton and Republican congressional leaders. It was, unfortunately, Beltway business as usual, with the bipartisan pork larded on high and deep. Particularly notable was the $9 billion in new military spending the Pentagon didn't ask for--the Clinton "concession" (as though the Clinton Administration has ever objected to more military spending) for more teachers. That $9 billion, of course, included a generous allocation for a new Lockheed-Martin C-130 transport plane order, to be assembled largely in the home district of (surprise!) Newt Gingrich. Listening to the punditocracy, whatever muddled bedroom politic message the voters supposedly sent this month, alas, surely did not include a message to please stop swindling us. That'll just hafta wait till next election.--G.P.

Mumia Abu-Jamal organizing followup: Seattle lefties organized a march on short notice on Saturday (Nov. 7), coinciding with marches and actions in a number of cities across the nation and world. There's now a reconstituted Seattle Mumia Defense Committee leafletting, stickering, and meeting weekly upstairs from The Vain Co., at 2222 2nd Ave. in Belltown, at 8 PM Tuesday evenings. Call 206-781-9781 for updates on more upcoming events. ETS! got a lot of letters and phone calls in response to our story last week on Mumia's loss of his state appeal--many people hadn't heard (a stunning failure on the part of mainstream media). That's why we're here.--G.P.

For those following last month's arrest of Chile's former dictator, Augusto Pinochet, and the effort to extradite him to Spain to stand trial for torture, genocide, and terrorism, there's more good news: the Spanish judge pursuing the case has cleared two major hurdles. First, Spain's National Court ruled that the Spanish judicial system has jurisdiction over crimes of genocide, no matter where they occur in the world. Second, the Spanish government finally approved the request for extradition and will pass it on to Britain. Now the only barrier is a ruling made last month by a British High Court granting political immunity to Pinochet. That ruling is being appealed before the highest court in Britain, the Lords of Appeal, who will rule on it sometime this week. In the meantime, three more countries have lined up to slam-dunk Pinochet if he sets foot on their turf: Belgium, Germany, and Denmark--all responding to lawsuits brought by Chilean exiles. At home in Chile, the opposition is still going strong; well over 2,000 people gathered in Santiago's public cemetery on the Day of Dead (Nov. 1) to pay tribute to Pinochet's victims, while thousands more watched the march and cheered them on. Carrying flowers, the mourners chanted: "The blood of the victims is not negotiable!" And, in an angrier vein: "Pinochet to the firing squad!"--M.T.

While the rest of world is watching the Pinochet proceedings closely, the U.S. press has turned a blind eye. More importantly, the U.S. government is sweating bullets over Spanish judge Baltasar Garzon's attempts to bring a former U.S. client to justice. Garzon has asked the U.S. government to turn over its secret files on Operation Condor, the CIA's covert program to destabilize governments throughout South America. Started in the late 1940's, Operation Condor began with the relocation of former Nazi war criminals to Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, and Chile after WWII. Its distinguished alumni include the butcher Klaus Barbie, former head of the Gestapo office in Lyons, where he tortured to death Jews and French Resistance fighters during WWII. Barbie was smuggled out of Europe in 1951 by the U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps and relocated to Bolivia, where he helped to engineer three separate, CIA-backed military coups in 1964, 1970, and 1980. Barbie also participated in the search for and murder of Che Guevara in 1967. The CIA's Operation Condor destabilized the government of Salvador Allende, hastened its fall, provided support to the Chilean military, and paved the way for Pinochet's brutal regime. That the history of U.S. government support for Barbie, Pinochet, and other South American murderers may get an open hearing in Spanish courts is making a lot of U.S. government personnel nervous ... and it's long overdue.--M.T.

Locally, Mayor Paul Schell is up to his own ethics-related hijinks. Schell is on a crusade to change the city's ethics rules, which prohibit city employees from engaging in any deal that gives an "appearance" of a conflict of interest. Of course, Schell's support for the PacMed scandal and his cheerleading for more public/private partnerships has left a lot of us wondering just how long it would take him to attack city regulations regarding conflicts of interest. So far he's masked his move to disembowel city rules behind a call for more specific and more detailed regulations outlining exactly what activities are prohibited. While the federal government utilizes a "specifics" approach to ethics guidelines (and we know just how poorly that's worked), a lot of local governments stick to the "appearances" approach, because it's broader, covers more situations, and is more adaptable to new kinds of deals ... like public/private partnerships, for example. Anyway, the current regulations only specify which kinds of activities should be investigated; as council member Nick Licata has said: "No one is fined just for appearance ... It's a triggering mechanism to investigate further." Which leaves me wondering: what is Paul Schell afraid of?--M.T.

Last week, the situation at Neah Bay deteriorated past the level of suspense and into the realm of pure idiocy. It's hard to believe that Lisa Distifano stepped ashore onto the Makah reservation not knowing that she would both provoke a confrontation with tribal police (who else has jurisdiction to arrest people on the reservation?) and get Alberta Thompson into deep trouble. Principles aside, what Distifano and her boat-mates did was stupid. But what came afterward was purely horrifying. Sea Shepherd folks stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Republican Jack Metcalf and supported his demand for a Department of Justice investigation. That means calling in the FBI--the same U.S. government enforcement agency that's harassed and murdered Native-American activists for decades (not to mention African-American activists, social justice activists, and environmentalists). If the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society wants to retain any respect at all, they'll stop leaning on the U.S. government as a crutch to get what they want. In other words: "Grow up!"--M.T.