installed in a transport plane behind curtains and flown around over known oil fields. Sure enough the device flashed lights, drew lines on the attached TV, and printed paper with a sort of topographical map on it. The map looked almost identical to previously published public exploration reports. The Elf observers, including company founder Pierre Guillaumat, were completely convinced that the devices were real. In May 1976 Elf signed a 200 million Swiss Franc (USD 80 million) contract for a two-year exclusive use while the device was tested. When this contract was complete, a second would take over in 1978 for an additional 250 million Francs (USD 130 million), expenses not included. This was apparently done without Elf's civilian board of directors being made aware of the project. France's president, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, was told of the devices in June 1976 and was aware of the development contracts being given to de Villegas' Fisalma. Four months later the new prime minister, Raymond Barre, learned of devices when his signature was required to waive various currency restrictions in order to transfer the funds abroad to the company's Swiss bank account. To keep the project secret, the funds were transferred through previously small Elf bank accounts. Exposure In spite of numerous "successful" flights, every attempt to drill at the indicated locations came up empty. Bonassoli repeatedly stated that it appeared to be "too accurate" to be used and required further development. Their Elf contacts remained confident in the devices in spite of the failures, and would happily provide documentation of previous studies on the fields that were going to be flown over in the tests. These studies were then parroted back through the devices, further convincing the Elf managers that the devices worked. Things started to change when management of Elf passed from Guillaumat to Albin Chalandon. Initially a supporter of the project, after examining project documentation, Chalandon was forced to admit that there was not a single usable result from the tests. In May 1979 he arranged for Jules Horowitz, chief of research and development for France's atomic energy agency, to visit the lab and examine "Omega". Instead of examining the device itself, he started asking Bonassoli questions about the Omega's capability to detect various common objects through a wall. After two failures, Bonassoli eventually agreed that it could easily detect a metal ruler. Bonassoli turned on the device, and sure