A book to stay away from

[specwarnet]

"Elite Forces" by Richard M. Bennett.

I got an e-mail frm Dominique, one of the guys that writes with me at SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net) saying he'd leafed through it at his local Borders Bookstore and there were things that looked really familiar.

No shit.

I did the same and am royally pissed off.

All of his operations write-ups were copied from my site. At least a couple of unit profiles were as well. I haven't had a chance to go through it all yet....

What's not copied is so full of errors we should hand this out to Iraq and Al Qaeda for disinformation purposes. According to him, the NightStalkers (http://www.nightstalkers.com/) are part of AFSOC and the main varient of the "Pave Hawk" flown is the MH-60K. I've got to comapare it to SpecialOperations.com and Isayeret (http://www.isayeret.com/) still, but keep your nose clear of this piece of shit. Save your money.

[Sweetbriar]

Get a lawyer to write a threatening copyright infringement letter for you to the publisher. Even if that's the only thing he does for you, you might be able to get some sort of satisfaction from it. (They'll sell what they have in stock, but maybe they'll give you a check of some small size....)

[specwarnet]

Oh, you can believe it... just gathering intel first.

[chom66]

Hi,

By coincidence I saw that book today and leafed through it from what I can see all the swedish SF unit profiles is virtually word for word and so are some of the italian unit profiles.

Chom

[specwarnet]

OK, here's a partial list... I'll update it when I have time

COPIES
Argentina (Pages 9&10)
Halcon 8 & Navy Divers[/I]) copied from this SpecialOperations.Com (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Argentina/Default.htm) page.
GOE copied from this specwarnet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/argentina_goe.htm) page.

Austria (Pages 14&15)
GEK Cobra copied from SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/europe/gek.htm)
Mobile Einsatz Kommando (MEK) copied from SpecialOperations.Com (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Austria/Default.html) (hereafter called SOC)

Bahrain (Page 16)
U-group & Special Forces copied from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Bahrain/Default.html)

Balkans - US Special Forces Involvement 1990's (Page 16)
Lifted from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Army/Delta_Force/bosnia.html) but possibly copywritten to someone else... must check this.

Belgium (Page 21)
Para Commando Brigade lifted from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Belgium/Para_Commandos/default.htm)
ESI has some text changes but is essentially lifted from Specwarnet (http://www.specwarnet.net/europe/esi.htm).

Bolivia (Page 28)
Polivalante write-up lifted from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Bolivia/default.htm).

Botswana (Page 29)
Special Support Group lifted from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Botswana/Default.htm)

Brandenburgers - Germany's Warrior Spies (Page 30)
Partially lifted from A Warbooks Review (http://www.warbooks.com/brandenburg.html) that might be text from a book More of it was found here (http://members.aol.com/TFGrantel/books/brandenburg.html) as well.

Brazil (Page 34)
Military Special Forces: Specwarnet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/brazil_1st_sfb.htm).
Fast Action Force has elements from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Brazil/Default.html)
COMANF is mainly from SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/comanf.htm).
Grupo Especial de Resgate (GER), GRUMEC, Comando de Operaciones Tacticas, and Projecto Talon are from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Brazil/Default.html)

Cabinda Operation - South African Recces (Page 40)
copied from South African Roll of Honour (http://www.lib.sun.ac.za/roh/roh.exe?MenuItem=Person&PersonNumber=814)

Canada (Page 42)
Military Special Forces has elements from my really old JTF-2 (http://www.blarg.net/~whitet/jtf2.htm) page that I never took down (oops)

Che Guevara - A Special Forces Success Story? (Page 43)
Not sure if this is the original souce page, but his write up is an edited version of The Death of Che Guevara: Declassified (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB5/) from the NSA Archives (http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/).

Chile (Page 46)
Civiallian Special Forces:
UAT is based on this SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/uat.htm) page and his GOPE write up based on another (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/gope.htm)

China (Page 47)
Military Special Forces is copied from SOC's China: Special Operations Forces of the PLA (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/China/Overview.htm) page for the most part; but each sentence is modified slightly. For example, SOC's page says "The PPC, called by the Chinese the "world's lightest flying device," was fielded to the SOFs in 1996," his version says, "The PPC, which the Chinese consider the world's lightest flying device, entered service with the SFs in 1996. "

Clandestine War Against Irag (Page 50)
I'm sure James S. Robbins (http://www.nationalreview.com/contributors/robbins022102.shtml) is delighted at being ripped off word-for-word without credit.

Cockleshell Heros - SBS (Page 53)
Pretty much the Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment (http://www.specialoperations.com/History/WWII/Cockleshell.htm) section of SOC's "COCKLESHELL HEROES": BRITISH SMALL BOAT OPERATIONS IN WORLD WAR 2"

Colombia (Page 54)
AFEU copied from SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/afeu.htm)
Lanceros copied from SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/lanceros.htm)

GOES, GCA, and GASDA (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Colombia/Default.htm) from SOC

Combat Training For Special Forces (Page 57)
Copied from an article by CWO James M. Webb, Blaise Loong and Sergeant John S. Joyce and posted at Black Belt Magazine (http://www.blackbeltmag.com/archives/blackbelt/1985/dec85/greenberet/greenberet.html)

Commandos - British Army (Page 60)
No copying found from the internet (yet?)

Commandos - French Navy (Page 62)
Copied from Specwarnet (http://www.specwarnet.com/europe/cofusco.htm)

Commandos - Royal Navy (Page 62)
Copied from "The Royal Navy Commandos" by S. H. Kipling. It was here (http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Keith_Oakley/rnhist.htm) on the "Royal Naval Commando Association Homepage" but is now 404 (gone) and can only be read through Google's Cache (http://216.239.53.104/search?q=cache:0ap7IRwfXwwC:ourworld.compuserve.co m/homepages/Keith_Oakley/rnhist.htm+Operation+Ironclad+Royal+navy+commandos&hl=en&ie=UTF-8).

Congo (Page 66)
Military Special Forces copied from specialoperations.com (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Democratic_Republic_Congo/Default.htm).

Costa Rica (Page 67)
Civilian Special Forces copied from specialoperations.com (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Costa_Rica/).

Croatia (Page 69)
350 Diverzantski Unit copied from iSpec (http://ispec.specwarnet.net/croatia/350.html)
352 diverzantsko copied from iSpec (http://ispec.specwarnet.net/croatia/delta.html)

Cuba (Page 72)
Copied from SpecWarNet (http://www.specwarnet.net/americas/cte.htm)

Cuba (Page 72)
Copied from Global Defense (http://www.global-defence.com/1997/MilitaryCommunications.html)

Delta - Doubts and Double Dealings (Page 76)
Part of chapter 15 (http://www.statecraft.org/chapter15.html) of Instruments of Statecraft (http://www.statecraft.org)

Denmark - Military Special Forces
(Page 77)
Jaegercorps and Froemandskorpset copied from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Foreign/Miscellaneous/Scandinavia.htm)

De Punt Train Hijacking 1977 - BBE (Page 78)
copied from SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Counterterrorism/De_Punt.html)

Desert Storm (Page 80)
copied from Special Forces Operations in Desert Storm (http://www.cdiss.org/scudnt5.htm) (This site (http://www.angelfire.com/wa/cagiva2/sasdesert.html) ripped it off too)

Devil's Brigade (Page 81)
Copied from a SOC.mil history or special operations (http://www.soc.mil/sofinfo/story.shtml#sp02). Not illegal, but lame nonetheless.

Djibouti Bus Hijacking 1976 - GIGN
(Page 82)
SOC (http://www.specialoperations.com/Counterterrorism/Djibouti.html)
Oops jumped ahead

Green Berets - US Special Forces (Page 115)
copied from History of the U.S. Army Special Forces (http://www.floridaguard.net/320sfga/sfhistory_1.htm) on the Florida National Guard's page.

ISA (Page 150)
Copied from chapter 15 (http://www.statecraft.org/chapter15.html) of Instruments of Statecraft (http://www.statecraft.org)

Operations
Azalee (http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/azalee.htm), Eagle Claw (http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/eagleclaw.htm), Jonathan (http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/entebbe.htm), Just Cause (http://www.specwarnet.net/miscinfo/patilla.htm) from Specwarnet.
Operation Rooster write-up is copied from this geocities page (http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2848/operate3.htm)

Errors
His write-up of Somalia (Page 26) is going to get its own forum entry. There will be much flames over this.

He lists the Special Boat Units (now Teams) as part of the Marine Corps.

He says that the Nightstalkers fly the HH-60G Pave Hawk and RAH-66 Commanche.

[ThomasBHunter]

I agree with SpecWarNet - avoid this book., The author knows nothing about CT or SOF and just lifted info from websites (seemingly illegally) and put them in a book.

[Daredevil]

You know, I picked that book up and read small amounts, and I thought it looked like something I read before and I couldn't put my finger on it. Now I know.

[specwarnet]

Still adding entries and I didn't want it to drop off the main page.

[Donna]

Specwarnet

Let us know how you resolve this matter with this "coughing" author.

[specwarnet]

Not resolved yet, although I do have a funny story. Got an e-mail from someone else he ripped off who'd seen my review on Amazon.com.

Turns out the guy'd ripped off a profile of a weapon that he'd invented for a game.... it's not even produced but he said it was well respected by Delta and the SAS!

I'll post it when I get to that section.

[Donna]

"Turns out the guy'd ripped off a profile of a weapon that he'd invented for a game...it's not even produced but he said it was well respected by Delta and the SAS".

LMAO....this falls under the heading of FUBAR.


So, he can steal someone else's work, but can't even figure out what he's stolen? That's wrong I tell you, just wrong on so many levels. :D


But Wait!!! Maybe he talked to the Delta and SAS guys. You know those Delta Airline guys, always giving someone shit. And those Seniors At Sonora Highschool (SAS), can't trust them at all:p

Thanks for the laugh specwarnet. Can't wait to hear how this plays out.