Medal of Honor recipient and Kentuckian Dakota Meyer is back in the news. He's suing defense contractor BAE Systems. Meyer worked for BAE, but took issue with the company's plans to sell thermal sniper scopes to Pakistan.Meyer says BAE responded to his concerns by ridiculing him. He left BAE in May for another firm, but says his BAE supervisor told his new employer that Meyer was mentally unstable and had a drinking problem."BAE disputes Sergeant Meyer's claims, but they're not disputing them in specific," said Wall Street Journal reporter Julian Barnes on today's Here and Now. "They said they'll wait for a court filing to do that."When I spoke with Meyer earlier this year, he said he had worked for a defense contractor but wasn't treated well. He declined to discuss the matter further. Here and Now host Monica Brady-Myerov asked Barnes whether Meyer, at the position he held, should have had a say in BAE's work in Pakistan."BAE doesn't decide what technology can be exported to Pakistan," said Barnes. Barnes also said "wheels are grinding forward" toward the sale of the scopes, which may be part of American efforts to better outfit Pakistani soldiers, who could support American troops.Brady-Myerov also asked whether the situation says anything about the larger issues of veterans working for contractors or working in general after their service."We have a lot of veterans who have gone through deployment after deployment in Iraq and Afghanistan and are now going to be coming into a civilian workplace and that's going to be a difficult transition," said Barnes.You can listen to the full discussion here.
