The newest Obama Administration scandal-de-jour, LightSquared, has quickly escalated to involve potentially "guided" testimony to two separate Congressional Committees. Additionally, two witnesses have confirmed that the White House pressured them to alter testimony in favor of LightSquared, a Virginia broadband provider whose executives also made very large Democrat Party campaign contributions.
Further, entire portions of the supposedly independent opinion submitted to a Congressional Oversight Committee regarding LightSquared from four separate government agencies contained "identical language in their written testimony" – a truly remarkable coincidence.
The scandal erupted last week on Capitol Hill when Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH) revealed that General William Shelton, Commander of the Air Force Space Command Center in Colorado Springs, told the House Armed Services Strategic Forces Subcommittee that the White House tried to convince Shelton to alter his testimony to favor LightSquared's FCC application to establish a national wireless communications network. Rep. Turner is Chairman of the Sub-Committee.
A second witness has now come forward, as well. Anthony Russo, director of the National Coordination Office for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing told The Daily Beast, that the White House pushed him to alter his testimony to say that "the government's concerns about the project by the firm LightSquared could be resolved in 90 days." That timetable, Russo understood, would be favorable to the company's FCC approval objectives. But, Russo disagreed, believing testing would take at least six months, so he rejected the White House pressure - he prefers to call it "guidance." General Shelton was also "guided" to make the same reference to a mere 90 days testing period.
The growing LightSquared scandal shares a common denominator with the on-going investigations involving Solyndra – the failed California solar energy company favored with a $535 million loan from the Department of Energy – in addition to the questionable White House involvement. In both cases major company principals were also large Democrat Party donors who got access to the White House brass.
