Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood’s son barred from leaving Egypt

“One of these citizens is Sam LaHood, the son of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood,” McCain continued. “It is worrying enough that Sam and his fellow NGO workers have been singled out by name in Egyptian state-owned media; it is outrageous that these individuals would be held against their will by Egyptian authorities and prohibited from leaving the country.”

The IRI said the younger LaHood was one of it five of its employees that have been placed on a “no-fly” list by Egyptian officials. The organization said Sam LaHood has worked in its Egyptian office for about a year and half. 

“He went over there at a very quiet time, and he stayed through all the turmoil,” IRI president Lorne Craner said of LaHood in an interview with The Hill Thursday, refering to the unrest surrounding the resignation of former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak last year. 

Craner said he could not discuss specific diplomatic efforts involving the Egyptian government, but “a lot of folks on the hill have very helpful and a lot of folks in the [Obama] administration have very helpful,” he said.

Sen. McCain said the IRI group that includes Secretary LaHood’s son should be allowed to leave Egypt because “these individuals and the organizations that employ them have broken no laws, and indeed, have made every effort to comply with the statutes, regulations, and requests of the Egyptian government.”

{mosads}LaHood is a former Republican member of Congress who held an Illinois House seat from 1995 until he was appointed to the Cabinet by President Obama in 2009. McCain was the Republican Party’s presidential nominee against Obama in 2008.

The Transportation department declined to comment on Sam LaHood’s predicament Thursday, but McCain said he feared “for the safety of all of the employees of these NGOs — Americans, Egyptians and others, especially those who have been barred from leaving the country.”

-This post was updated with new information at 2:46 p.m.