A veteran U.S. space operator has publicly alleged that a concealed ‘security control system’ within America’s national-security space enterprise is undermining commanders, obstructing routine tracking of objects in orbit, and, in some cases, diverting data away from the very commands responsible for defending the nation.
In a LinkedIn statement on 29 September 2025, Jim Shell alleged that a secret system has supplanted the ‘direction and authority’ of the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command. Shell is a former ‘Chief Scientist’ by duty title at the Space Innovation and Development Center under Air Force Space Command.
In his statement, Shell states he has high confidence that the system is:
- Supplanting the authority of Space Force and Space Command
- Causing unauthorised interference with the Space Domain Awareness (SDA) mission – the global effort to detect, track and characterise satellites, debris, and other orbital objects
- Demonstrating the potential to interfere with U.S. Northern Command’s ability to protect the homeland
- Suppressing intelligence about Russian and Chinese on-orbit activities
- Enforcing unpublished security rules that have led to Guardians – service members with the Space Force – being removed, threatened with court martial, and branded ‘problematic,’ while their commanders were never told the basis for the charges.
He adds that he has medium confidence in two further claims: that funds have been misappropriated, and that the system connects to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) activity – this raises the possibility that anomalous orbital detections are removed from the standard catalogue before they reach operational commanders.
Shell links today’s problems to a 2018 classification policy; however, Liberation Times understands the system’s unpublished rules predate 2018.
The 2018 policy was co-signed by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) – which runs America’s spy satellites – and U.S. Strategic Command, which oversaw space operations before the creation of the U.S. Space Force and Space Command in 2019.
When the U.S. Space Command was re-established in 2019, following its inactivation in 2002, it adopted the policy, according to Shell.
Shell argues neither NRO nor U.S. Strategic Command had proper authority to impose such sweeping changes, yet the unpublished rules stemming from that policy continue to be enforced.
Alarmingly, according to Shell, attempts by senior officials to change the policy have repeatedly failed.
He points to an alleged confrontation on 27 May 2021, when the Vice Chief of Space Operations sought to push through changes but was blocked. Based on the date and role, this likely refers to General David Thompson, who held that post at the time.
Hellbound and Down 