European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 8, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Friday november 8, 1991 the stars and stripes b. Page 9 philippine storm toll now Over 3,000 residents of Oroc City search for victims wednesday after floods and landslides from tropical storm Thelma devastated the area. Oroc Philippines apr thousands of survivors thursday searched or mocks Muddy streets for missing relatives two Days after huge landslides triggered by storm Rains devastated the Central Philippines port. More than 3,000 people died in Oroc the Leyte Island City hardest hit by tuesdays landslides said Vilma Tan a provincial disaster coordinator. About 350 people died elsewhere on Leyte and on neighbouring Negros Island she said. Thousands of people were also missing and feared dead possibly after being swept into shark infested seas or buried by debris officials said. Tan said 2,011 people were missing in Oroc alone. Oroc meanwhile reeked with the stench of death. Bodies of the victims Lay on the mud caked streets and in gullies. The City was so Short of coffins that some people were reported using the ruins of their clapboard Homes to build caskets. Authorities on thursday dug mass Graves for the dead and appealed for food Medicine and clothing to Nelp the survivors Cope with the fourth major natural disaster to strike the country in two years. The disaster came As tropical storm Thelma swept Over the Region Southeast of Manila dumping nearly 6 inches of rain in 24 hours. Some blamed the disaster not on the storm but on illegal logging a nationwide problem that president Corazon Aquino a government has been unable to Stop. Such logging which is believed to go on with the Connivance of corrupt politicians has denuded mountains around Oroc. A i have complained about illegal logging a said rep. Carmelo Locsin or mocks congressman who flew to Manila in search of Aid. A the people Are suffering for  entire coastal shanty settlements were washed away tuesday on Leyte and Negros when Walls of mud water and debris roared Down without warning from mountains stripped of Trees. A cars and trucks were being flushed into Oroc Bay like toys a Ruby Gernale a red Cross official in Oroc said of tues Days inundation. A people were being carried by the Waters crying out for  Many of the victims were children and the elderly too weak to escape the deluge. Locsin told radio stations in Manila on thursday that the casualty figure was largely an estimate. The congressman s wife Oroc mayor Maria Victoria Locsin told reporters that about 700 bodies had already been buried. A we need used clothing medicines. There is a shortage of water fuel Medicine and clothing in Oroc a said Loc sin adding that a plan Load of Relief goods left Manila for the City of 160,000 Early thursday. The National government in Manila Only became aware of the scope of the disaster wednesday because or poor communications with the area. Meanwhile former first lady Imelda Marcos visited Leyte on thursday but remained near Taloban in the islands Northern Region away from the disaster area. This weeks disaster was the fourth major natural catastrophe to strike the Philippines since a devastating earthquake killed nearly 1,700 people on Luzon Island in july 1990. Five months ago the eruptions of mount Pinatubo Volcano caused deaths of about 700 people and forced the . Air Force to abandon Clark a 10 Miles to the East. In november 1990, typhoon Mike passed through the Central Philippines Illing at least 335 people and sinking More than 30 ships in Cebu Harbor. Book says Hoover knew of Juk plot Fri chief did t try to halt attack author writes by Frederick m. W1nship United press International new York a a new Book alleges that late Fri director j. Edgar Hoover was guilty of treason for failing to divulge Advance knowledge of a mafia conspiracy to assassinate president Kennedy and instead worked to make sure the plan would succeed. Act of treason by lawyer historian Mark North of Austin Texas is the result of five years of research. It is based on documentation from Many sources including the 1979 report of the House select committee on assassinations. This report implied that Kennedy most Likely was killed by the Carlos Marcello mafia organization in new Orleans an allegation attacked by the Justice department and the Fri. North whose Book is scheduled for publication nov. 14, concentrates on proving that Marcello was out to get Kennedy because the president had humiliated the crime Boss by attempting to Deport him As an undesirable. Marcello also was a confidant and business associate of Jimmy Hoffa the corrupt teamsters Union Leader who had attorney general Robert f. Kennedy the presidents brother As his implacable foe. In his Book North provides the following account by september 1962, Marcello decided to put out a contract on the president hoping that his assassination would precipitate the removal of the attorney general. Marcello confided his plans to Hoffa and Santos Traficante a member of a Miami fla., mafia organization. Traficante in turn told a close Friend wealthy cuban exile Jose Aleman. Traficante had helped Aleman get a loan from the teamsters with Hoffa a approval and did not know that the cuban was an Fri informant. Aleman reported the plot to the Fri chief in Miami Wesley g. Grapp who sent the information to Hoover anal his Fri associate director Clyde Tol son. Tolson helped Hoover Analyse the plans probable Success and was As guilty of treason As his Boss. A despite specific statutory requirement and his duty As an american citizen Hoover did not inform his superiors within the Justice department or warn the secret service a North wrote. A the withheld the data in part because he Felt Kennedy was an indecisive immoral Liberal who if left in place would destroy the nation. A but most important he did this because Juk had made it known that he intended by the end of his first term in office to retire the director Hoover and replace him with a Man of his  North said hoovers decision to let events take their course was enforced by his Possession of sufficiently damning Fri information connecting then vice president Lyndon b. Johnson to the Billy sol Estes fertilizer swindle and a scandal involving Senate aide Bobby Baker and the mafia. This information would allow Hoover to control Johnson should he become president. In withholding this information about Johnson from the Justice department Hoover a hopelessly compromised the vice president who gave Hoover a retirement waiver shortly after he succeeded Kennedy As president. North wrote. According to North alleged Kennedy Assassin Lee Harvey Oswald was drawn into the conspiracy As a Scapegoat and was eating his lunch in the Texas Book depository building in Dallas on nov. 18,1962, when two mafia hit men fatally wounded Kennedy. Hoover promoted the a alone nuts theory to explain Oswald a role in the assassination and actually demanded in a Public statement that the Warren commission examining the assassination espouse this theory which it apparently reluctantly did. A in All likelihood preservation of institutional credibility was the Paramount concern of the commission a North wrote. A consider what the Short Lerm Public reaction would have been if it had been revealed that the director of the Fri an ultralight figure of messianic Bent and a hero to Many had allowed the president a highly popular Man of the Middle and left to be assassinated primarily for personal  in answer to the question As to Why the Justice department failed to follow up on evidence of the Marcello family a complicity in the assassination North wrote a if the truth behind the Kennedy assassination had involved Only a mafia contract would the Justice department have kept it from us for 28 years undoubtedly not. And yet they have done just that. In their minds they have to. A to do otherwise will implicate Hoover but More importantly the Fri As an