November 09, 2007	Friday	Shawwal 27, 1428

LOS ANGELES: Around 80,000 valuable artifacts from the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library are unaccounted for following an audit, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday.The items, including mementos from Reagan’s White House years, are missing because of a “near universal” security breakdown at the museum in Simi Valley, about 50 kms north of Los Angeles.

The Times cited a report by the inspector general of the US National Archives, Paul Brachfeld, whose office is investigating allegations that a former employee stole Reagan memorabilia.

The probe into the alleged theft had been hampered by the museum’s sloppy record-keeping, the Times reported.

“We have been told by sources that a person who had access capability removed holdings,” Brachfeld told the paper. “But we can’t lock in as to what those may be.” The Times reported that other presidential libraries across the United States are struggling to keep track of items in their care but that investigators had found the most serious problems at the Reagan facility.

Attention was being focused on whether items missing included part of a large collection of ornamental western belt buckles given to Reagan by admirers who of his attachment to his ranch in Santa Barbara.—AFP