A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State

Praise for

A Government of Wolves

"John Whitehead is one of the most eloquent and knowledgeable defenders of liberty, and opponents of the growing American police state, writing today. I am pleased to recommend
A Government of Wolves
to anyone interested in learning how modern America increasingly resembles a dystopian science fiction film instead of a Constitutional Republic."

—Ron Paul

Twelve-term US Congressman and former presidential candidate

"I was privileged to have Duke Ellington as a mentor, who said of the jazz that was unsuccessfully banned in their countries by Stalin and Hitler: 'The music is so free that many people say it is the only unhampered expression of complete freedom yet produced in this country.' But only a basically free country could have produced back then such freedom of expression that has become so energizing a global presence. If we are to be again this free a nation, John Whitehead will have had a lot to do with our being able to swing again."

—Nat Hentoff

American historian and nationally syndicated columnist

"The loss of liberty doesn't begin with invading armies, but with creeping government that slowly and almost imperceptibly invades our privacy with cameras, drones, wiretaps and monitoring of email communication. We are told this is for our own good. In this book, John Whitehead sounds a warning about overreaching government we had better heed before the point of no return has been reached."

—Cal Thomas

Syndicated and
USA Today
Columnist/Fox News Contributor

"A masterfully documented chronicle of frightened citizen vassalage to a Leviathan state in a hopes of a risk-free existence. An end to liberty is at hand."

—Bruce Fein

Associate Deputy Attorney General under President Reagan

Author of
American Empire Before the Fall

"Cynical, brutal, dehumanizing. Pervasive, insidious, incremental. Any hope of getting out of this prison we've found ourselves in and in the service of—Wake up! The paramilitary junta is breaking down your door! Your Miranda rights? Where have you been? They don't need no stinking badges! Get out of the way—it's your new police state in action. We're about to be herded—digitally, of course—into some nightmarish gulag that we can't even see because it's crept up on us incrementally like a toxic fog under the insidious guise of national security and other mendacious Newspeak. How did we become the prey of capitalistic jackals, ruthless corporations and power-intoxicated lackeys of the one percent terraraptors? Where is Thomas Paine now that we need him? He's here just in the nick of time in the person of John Whitehead, an uncompromising debunker of lies, rhetoric mongers, rights-shredders and the criminal acts of our shameless, double-crossing government. Drop everything and read A
Government of Wolves
before it's too late! I loved and was horrified by this disturbing and courageous book."

—David Dalton

New York Times
best-selling author

and a founding editor of
Rolling Stone Magazine

Copyright © 2013 by John W. Whitehead

All rights reserved. Published in the United States of America. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

This edition published by SelectBooks, Inc.

For information address SelectBooks, Inc., New York, New York.

First Edition

ISBN 978-1-59079-975-8

eISBN :9781590799833

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Whitehead, John W., 1946-

A government of wolves : the emerging American police state/ John W. Whitehead.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-59079-975-8 (hardcover : alk. paper)

1. Civil rights--United States. 2. United States—Politics and government. 3. Police power—United States. 4. Constitutional law—United States. I. Title.

JC599U5W5245 2013
323.4'90973-dc23

2013006480

Cover art and illustrations by Christopher Combs

Interior book design and production by Janice Benight

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 987654321

For Nisha Whitehead, my inspiration

"A nation of sheep will "beget
a government of wolves."

– EDWARD R. MURROW

CBS BROADCAST JOURNALIST

1908-1965

CONTENTS

Introduction by Nat Hentoff

PART I
IS THIS AMERICA?

1
I Am Afraid

2
Who Will Protect Us from Our Government?

3
On the Road to a Police Stat

PART II
THE FUTURE IS HERE

4
Fiction Has Become Reality

5
Reality Check

6
Smiling at Big Brother

PART III
WELCOME TO THE POLICE STATE

7
1984

8
America's New Way of Life

9
SWAT Team Mania

10
Dominate. Intimidate. Control

11
The New York Prototype

PART IV
THE ELECTRONIC CONCENTRATION CAMP

12
The Matrix: Where They Live

13
The Federal "Gestapo"?

14
Living in Oceania

15
The Watchers and the Watched

16
A Total Control Society

PART V
AMERICA THE RATTLEFIELD