Shelton heads the Air Force Space Command and was intending to raise serious concerns of how a new wireless project to threaten military operations. The project is being pushed by a satellite broadband company in Virginia called LightSquared, whose majority owner is an investment fund run by Democratic donor Philip Falcone. After allegedly leaking the testimony to the company, the White House allegedly asked Shelton to change his testimony to say he supported the use of more broadband for commercial use and could resolve the problems surrounding LightSquared with more testing in just 90 days. Shelton viewed the changes to be untrue and resisted. He was asked directly in a classified briefing about any such pressure and confirmed it.
Once again, I see a bit of a double standard in the coverage on this point. During the Bush terms, such intervention on behalf of donors was aggressively pursued by the media. This story would have been a major story. As search of the story this morning shows relatively light attention from the mainstream media. Why?
If there is another side to this story, the media should confirm it in broader discussion of the allegations. I am struck that the testimony was given in what appears to be a classified hearing. The intelligence and military committees appear quite selective in when to inform the public of such testimony. Torture was left classified and undisclosed until the media forced the story into the public. Yet, this story came out with little difficulty. Putting aside the selectivity, it is a story worthy of greater media attention.
Source: Daily Beast