Will the Lightsquared Interference Meeting be another arrow

[sad sally]

in the Republican's quiver to be used against the President?

On April 28, 2011 a meeting described in White House emails as the “Lightsquared interference meeting,” was set at Jackson Place conference center, a short stroll from the White House. The names of the people invited are blacked out in the records released under FOIA. Holding meetings in the Jackson Place complex has drawn the ire of Republicans who argue that the Obama administration has done so to keep from having to disclose names—especially those of lobbyists—in the White House visitors’ logs.

Peter L. Levin, the chief technology officer for the Department of Veterans Affairs, didn’t mince words in an explicit warning he sent via email to White House technology official Chopra and two other senior White House aides on March 26, 2011. Levin described a “catastrophe” from GPS interference.

Levin attached a March 2011 PowerPoint slide presentation called “Unintended Consequences” by Stanford University Emeritus Professor Bradford Parkinson, a retired Air Force officer and expert in the field. In his presentation, Parkinson said LightSquared should bear the burden of proving that its transmitters would not cause interference with GPS and said officials should “withdraw or indefinitely postpone (a) decision” on the plan. He doubted such a fix was possible.

Parkinson ended with the comment: “We believe this is potentially a very serious embarrassment to the current administration.”

Jeffrey Carlisle, a LightSquared executive vice president, in written testimony said that LightSquared expects to invest $14 billion over the next eight years to build a nationwide wireless broadband network.

The investment promises over 15,000 jobs a year for each of the five years that it will take to build the network, which he said would provide fast wireless broadband service to more than 260 million people.

The administration remains fully behind broadband. Buried deep in the $450 billion jobs plan President Obama outlined in speech to Congress on Sept. 8 is $10 billion to pay for a massive expansion of broadband internet service.

http://www.iwatchnews.org/2011/09/14/6458/emails-show-wireless-firms-communications-white-house-campaign-donations-were-made/page/0/2?du

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. first I've heard of this. kick

[sad sally]

2. TheDailyBeast has a story about the general who says the WH pressured him to

change his testimony.

Sep 15, 2011 12:24 AM EDT

The Pentagon has worried for months that a project backed by a prominent Democratic donor might interfere with military GPS. Now Congress wants to know if the White House pressured a general to change his testimony.

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.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2011/09/15/lightsquared-did-white-house-pressure-general-shelton-to-help-donor.html?du

[ProgressiveProfessor]

3. Numerous articles refering to pressure placed on a USAF general to get on board

Good thing that he did not.