Just like I suspected

[dawnstar@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]

Nouvel Observateur, the same paper that reported last March
the heinous financing by TOTAL of the Yadana pipeline, now is the first
paper in France to tell the truth about the Total-Elf sellout while
all the rest of the French press has been playing up to this
patron royale like sycophants to a minister. Obs #1819 Sept 16
says Jaffre was more or less forced out, while gleefully accepting
a parachute of 1OO million francs (about 18 million $) and gets to keep
his 200 million francs worth of stock options since the deal went down
officially as a friendly takeover. Hah! Jerome Monod and Yadana founder
Serge Tchuruk brokered the deal with Jaffré for TOTAL. Thats near a
total of 300 million francs, or about what the number two at Amoco got
in the BP buyout earlier this year.

Once again, you see how the french do it a little too late. wouldn't you
call this cowardly, or just crooked and cheap. In the end, Jaffré and
Desmarest get off like bandits, looking good, richer than ever, and the
french are once again made to look like fools.

This time I get to say I told you so...Sometimes its hard to resist. ds