PEORIA - GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich referred to the delicate diplomatic situation brewing in Egypt as "Obama's Hostage Crisis," involving the son of the Obama Administration's current U.S. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. The Chicago Tribune's account shows that Peorian Sam LaHood has spent a lot of time in the Middle East over the past decade. The younger LaHood is now being held by Egyptian authorities, accused of illegally influencing elections.
LaHood was uniquely suited for the task, Craner said. His father, the son of Lebanese immigrants, served seven terms in Congress representing the Peoria area and had also been a state legislator. Sam LaHood first visited Cairo as a college student, and he later returned to study at American University of Beirut, where he earned a master's degree.
Sam LaHood has spent most of the past dozen years in the Middle East, working for the State Department in Iraq, where he toured the war-torn country with reporters and helped with coverage of the trial of Saddam Hussein.
In 2008, he returned to the U.S. to work as an advance man on John McCain's presidential campaign. Afterward, he started a media consulting firm in Washington and worked there until taking the job with the institute. He got married last year and lives in a Cairo apartment near Tahrir Square.
via Chicago Tribune
