National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), France

This dangerous task group has accomplished a variety of things, including saving schoolchildren in Djibouti and apprehending war criminals in Bosnia. One of the deadliest organizations in the world, the force got its start after the 1972 Munich Olympics hostage atrocity.

They have the best training program and are equipped to defeat the Somali pirates with ease. In keeping with its mission statement, "To rescue lives without regard for one's own," GIGN is renowned for pursuing any danger to the country and its citizens. Keeping a low profile, it's even against French law to broadcast images of this 200-person unit's faces.

The 1979 capture of the Grand Mosque in Mecca was one of the most daring deeds in GIGN's history. Masjid al-Haram in Mecca was seized by extremist rebels who wanted to topple the House of Saud. Due to the ban on non-Muslims accessing the holy city, the GIGN joined the Saudi military, but three of its commandos temporarily converted to Islam and assisted in organizing the recovery of the mosque.