Sen. Rand Paul stopped by TSA at Nashville Airport Posted: Monday, January 23, 2012 10:29 AM EST Updated: Monday, February 20, 2012 10:29 AM EST 
 
 Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul was held by TSA officials at Nashville International Airport Monday morning after an "irregularity" was found during the security screening process. 
 
 SLIDESHOW | NOON REPORT 
 
 
 
 Paul lives in Bowling Green, KY., and is the son of Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul. 
 
 Aides to the senator said Sen. Paul set off a full body scanning machine going through airport security. Sen. Paul claimed it was a "glitch" and wanted to keep going. 
 
 
 
 An aide told NBC News that Sen. Paul told the screeners he doesn't have any metal. Apparently it was his right leg that was setting off the scanner. He raised his pant leg and showed them his leg, according to the aide. Paul said it was "clearly a glitch." 
 
 
 
 The aide said TSA refused to let him re-scan and demanded that he submit to a full body pat down. 
 
 The TSA said in a news release that "the passenger" was rebooked on another flight and was rescreened without incident. 
 
 "These are the indignities, and it's not just me. It's not because of who I am. Americans are going through the airport everyday and being subjected to these indignities. Nobody's thinking about who can attack us, who would attack us, it's just this mindlessness," said Sen. Paul. 
 
 
 
 The Kentucky senator has previously been critical about pat downs at a hearing. 
 
 Below is a statement released by the TSA about the incident: 
 
 "The passenger was not detained at any point. The passenger triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process in order to resolve the issue. Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area. He was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement. 
 
 The passenger was screened by millimeter wave imaging technology using automated target recognition. This technology uses the same generic image for all passengers to further protect passengers privacy. When an alarm occurs a yellow box indicates where an anomaly is. A targeted pat down is used to resolve the alarm." 
 
 Copyright 2012 WSMV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved. ||||| Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was blocked from boarding a flight Monday by the Transportation Security Administration in Nashville, Tenn., after refusing a full body pat-down, POLITICO has confirmed. 
 
 “I spoke with him five minutes ago and he was being detained indefinitely,” Paul spokesperson Moira Bagley said. “The image scan went off; he refused patdown.” 
 
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 Paul’s father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), 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. More details coming,” wrote the authenticated Twitter account of presidential candidate Ron Paul. 
 
 The TSA disputed this characterization of the incident. 
 
 The Kentucky senator triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and declined to finish the process, said a TSA official, but was “not detained at any point.” A targeted pat-down is usually used to address the alarm. 
 
 “Passengers, as in this case, who refuse to comply with security procedures are denied access to the secure gate area. He was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement,” the official said. 
 
 Shortly before noon, the TSA said Paul had been re-booked on another flight and went through the screening process again without incident. 
 
 After he was first stopped, Paul told The AP in a telephone interview that he asked for another scan after setting the scanner off but refused a pat-down, after which he was “detained” at a small cubicle and missed his flight to Washington. 
 
 Paul, a Republican, was traveling to Washington, when he was detained. He noted earlier on his Twitter that he was planning to speak at the March for Life. 
 
 “Today I’ll speak to the March for Life in DC. A nation cannot long endure w/o respect for the right to Life. Our Liberty depends on it,” tweeted Rand Paul at 9:49 A.M. 
 
 The TSA first released a statement to POLITICO without referring to the specific incident. 
 
 “When an irregularity is found during the TSA screening process, it must be resolved prior to allowing a passenger to proceed to the secure area of the airport. Passengers who refuse to complete the screening process cannot be granted access to the secure area in order to ensure the safety of others traveling,” said TSA Spokesperson Jonella Culmer. 
 
 Ron Paul’s presidential campaign released a strongly worded statement Monday afternoon, blistering the TSA for its practices. 
 
 “The police state in this country is growing out of control. One of the ultimate embodiments of this is the TSA that gropes and grabs our children, our seniors and our loved ones and neighbors with disabilities. The TSA does all of this while doing nothing to keep us safe,” it said. 
 
 The incident was first disclosed by the senator’s spokesperson on Twitter. 
 
 “Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville,” read her tweet just minutes later, at 9:59 A.M. 
 
 Like his father, Rand Paul has libertarian leanings and has been a fierce critic of TSA’s pat-downs of passengers at airports, which he views as government overreach. The senator grilled TSA Administrator John Pistole last year after a 6-year-old girl from Paul’s hometown, was patted down by airport security. 
 
 “I guess this little girl would be part of the random pat-downs, this little girl from Bowling Green, Kentucky, one of my constituents,” Paul said, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. “They’re still quite unhappy with you guys as well as myself and a lot of other Americans who think you’ve gone overboard, you’re missing the boat on terrorism because you’re doing these invasive searches on six-year-old girls.” 
 
 Scott Wong and Burgess Everett contributed to this report.
– Apparently the Pauls are willing to go quite far to maintain their libertarian principles: Rand Paul, son of presidential candidate Ron Paul, was detained by the TSA at Nashville International Airport this morning when he refused to submit to a patdown, WSMV reports. A Paul spokesperson confirms that the Kentucky senator "was being detained indefinitely. The image scan went off, he refused patdown." A tweet from his father cites an "anomaly" with the body scanner, Politico notes. "My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming," reads the tweet in full.