(Rand Paul) ~ Senator misses flight to Washington after refusing to be groped by federal agents...

Senator misses flight to Washington after refusing to be groped by federal agents

Steve Watson
Prisonplanet.com
January 23, 2012

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul was briefly detained this morning after a standoff incident with TSA officers In Nashville.

In a telephone interview with AP, Rand Paul confirmed that an “anomaly” on his knee was picked up by a full body scanner. Paul said he asked for another scan, but the TSA insisted he submit to a pat down by airport security.

After refusing the pat-down, Paul said he was then “detained” in a small cubicle and consequently missed a flight to Washington for a Senate session. Paul was also due to speak at the March for Life later today in DC.

He also said that the incident highlights how the TSA should not be “spending so much time with people who wouldn’t attack us.”

The story broke when Paul’s communications director tweeted that the Senator was asked to walk through a full body scanner and set off an alarm “on a glitch”.

The Paul staffer wrote “Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”

“I spoke with him five minutes ago and he was being detained indefinitely,” Paul staffer Moira Bagley elaborated Monday morning. “The image scan went off, he refused patdown.”

Ms. Bagley said that Paul’s office had been in contact with TSA head John Pistole regarding the incident.

A spokesman for TSA has told ABC News that the agency was looking into the matter but could not immediately comment.

Paul’s father, GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul also tweeted out news of the incident, saying that there had been an “anomaly” with a body scanner.

“My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville.” the tweet stated.

Rand Paul and his father have been ardent critics of the TSA and the heavy handed security tactics the agency employs within the nations airports and beyond.

URL:

http://www.prisonplanet.com/rand-paul-detained-by-tsa-over-pat-down-standoff.html

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