The company name, LIGHTSQUARED, may not mean much to you now, but it may become the damning blow to the already weak Obama presidency.  Lightsquared is bringing forward a new GPS navigation network and is partnering with SPRINT and is backed by yet another big donor to Barack Obama.   Early tests however show that the navigation network, which works through airwaves usually reserved for satellites,  causes interference with crucial MILITARY GPS.   Today Pajamas Media, The Kansas City Star and many other news outlets are exposing that General Richard Sheldon of

the Joints Chief of Staff was pressured by the White House to change his congressional testimony so that LightSquared’s new GPS technology would not be disadvantaged.  Such pressuring of testimony is suborning perjury and a felony.

Here’s what THE DAILY BEAST reports:

The four-star Air Force general who oversees Air Force Space Command walked into a highly secured room on Capitol Hill a week ago to give a classified briefing to lawmakers and staff, and dropped a surprise. Pressed by members, Gen. William Shelton said the White House tried to pressure him to change his testimony to make it more favorable to a company tied to a large Democratic donor.

The episode —confirmed by The Daily Beast in interviews with administration officials and the chairman of a congressional oversight committee —is the latest in a string of incidents that have given Republicans sudden fodder for questions about whether the Obama administration is politically interfering in routine government matters that affect donors or fundraisers. Already, the FBI and a House committee are investigating a federal loan guarantee to a now failed solar firm called Solyndra that is tied to a large Obama fundraiser.

Now the Pentagon has been raising concerns about a new wireless project by a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared, whose majority owner is an investment fund run by Democratic donor Philip Falcone.

According to officials familiar with the situation, Shelton’s prepared testimony was leaked in advance to the company. And the White House asked the general to alter the testimony to add two points: that the general supported the White House policy to add more broadband for commercial use; and that the Pentagon would try to resolve the questions around LightSquared with testing in just 90 days. Shelton chafed at the intervention, which seemed to soften the Pentagon’s position and might be viewed as helping the company as it tries to get the project launched, officials said.

Here’s how LightSquared Chairman Sanjiv Ahuja describes the profound wireless service he would like to offer Americans, IF he has access to our precious satellite only and defense airwaves:

LightSquared envisions offering wholesale service through a network of 40,000 base stations using airwaves previously reserved mainly for satellites. Makers and users of GPS devices, which rely on satellite signals, say LightSquared’s network would disrupt navigation by planes, boats, tractors and automobiles.

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Filed under: Economy, Featured, Inside The KC, Politics, Sonja Eddings Brown by Sonja Eddings Brown, Sep 16, 2011