At least he's against the war.
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washingtonpost.com
Tractor Standoff Continues
By David Nakamura
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, March 18, 2003; 8:13 PM
Dwight Ware Watson, the man engaged in a marathon standoff with law enforcement on the Mall, said today that he has explosives but does not intend to harm anyone. He said he came to Washington on a "mission" to get a message to the American public that he and other tobacco farmers are being forced out of business by unfair government policies.
"I'm going to get my message out or die trying," he said in a telephone call to The Washington Post from Constitution Gardens, where he drove a tractor into a shallow pond at 12:30 p.m. Monday.
"I don't give a damn no more," Watson said. "If this is the way America will be run, the hell with it. I'm out of here. I will not surrender. They can blow my ass out of the water. I'm ready to go to heaven."
Asked when he might end the standoff, Watson said: "I've got the rest of my life to stay right here. I'm not going anywhere."
Watson, 50, from Whitakers, N.C., drove a jeep towing the tractor on a trailer off a curb on Constitution Avenue NW. Then he drove the jeep into the small pond around noon yesterday. Since then, more than 100 Park Police and agents from the FBI and ATF have been negotiating to try to end the episode peacefully. Police said that if Watson remains on his tractor through the evening, they would keep traffic restrictions in place.
Early in the standoff, authorities said, Watson claimed to have explosives. Law enforcement sources said they do not yet know whether he does. Some nearby government buildings were kept closed today. Several nearby streets have been closed, including a stretch on Constitution, creating massive traffic tie-ups. Streets remained closed this afternoon.
Watson, a former military policeman in the 82nd Airborne in the mid-1970s, said the explosives are in the tractor or jeep. He said he has plenty of food and water. He has remained in the tractor for much of the ordeal. At one point this morning, he started the tractor and drove it a few yards. But then he stopped, remaining in the rig.
Watson, whose family has run a farm for several generations, said he could no longer remain economically solvent and this weekend decided to give up farming. "I'm broke. I'm busted," he said.
But Watson added that he wanted to stand up to the government over its policies of cutting subsidies to farmers and making it difficult for American tobacco growers to compete internationally. He said he wants the government's landmark lawsuit against tobacco companies thrown "in the garbage can, where it belongs."
He also said he is against the America's pending war with Iraq.
Watson said he is acting alone. Asked why he decided to protest this week, Watson said: "I just played it by ear. The Lord told me to do it. He said, 'Time is running out, Jack.'"
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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