Contract Killers Gone Legal

Murdering merc for the ruling class finally dead at age 78. May his karma follow him.

PARIS (AP) — Bob Denard, a French former mercenary who staged coups and led uprisings across Africa and the Middle East, has died, his family said Sunday. He was 78. Denard died in the Paris area and the cause of death was not immediately clear, said a family member on condition of anonymity for privacy reasons. He had been known to suffer from Alzheimer's disease and cardiovascular problems.

Once France's top gun for hire, Denard led uprisings starting in 1961 in the Belgian Congo, Nigeria, Angola, Zimbabwe — when it was white-ruled Rhodesia — as well Iran and Yemen. He claims France often covertly supported his actions.

Denard, whose real name was Gilbert Bourgeaud, staged at least three coups on the Comoros, an impoverished chain of islands in the Indian Ocean which he ruled through figurehead presidents from 1978 to 1989 — when France negotiated his departure.

----Some consider Denard the inventor of modern private armies. Denard and his men were feared and hated throughout Africa for their ruthless efficiency. Always acquitted by the French courts or given suspended sentences Denard never answered or paid for his murders and torturing - his crimes against humanity throughout North Yemen, Biafra, Angola, and Comoros islands. (Google for the days of the French in Biafra.)

The hired gun industry has been polished since Denard's glory days. Today's multinational corporate security firms (mercs) have corporate structure, PR and brand name marketing, and never use the word mercenary; the firms claim professionalism, innovating cost effectiveness, ethics, loyalty, speedy deployment, etc. etc.

Although currently private merc firms are experiencing negative publicity with accusations of incompetence, contract abuses, employee deaths, and debates on their very existence - give 'em another decade (or generation) - folks will wonder how the (anglo) world ever managed without "private security corporations."