Senator Rand Paul and TSA
Sen. Rand Paul told his communications director this morning he was being detained by TSA at the Nashville airport.
The Twitter account associated with Paul staffer Moira Bagley, @moirabagley, tweeted around 10 a.m., ET: “Just got a call from @senrandpaul. He’s currently being detained by TSA in Nashville.”
A TSA spokesman disputed that Paul was ever “detained.” But he was not granted access to the secure area of the airport when he tried to board a flight Monday morning.
The standoff was short-lived. By late morning, according to TSA, Paul had been booked on another flight and made it through the screening process.
The TSA version of events is that Paul triggered an alarm during routine airport screening and refused to complete the screening process (pat-down) in order to resolve the issue. Paul was escorted out of the screening area by local law enforcement.
“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” – according to an official statement released by TSA. “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.”
Paul’s office confirmed he set off an airport security full-body scanner “on a glitch” – according to a spokesman.
The Paul staffer said TSA agents would not let Paul walk back through the body scanner and were demanding a full body pat-down.
Rand Paul.
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.”
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 Transportation Security Administration, which handles security at U.S. airports, has sparked an outcry in recent years with its policies, including full-body imaging and patdowns that have been called invasive.
Rand Paul told Reuters he was detained after objecting to the physical search on privacy grounds, a charge the TSA denied.
As favourites of the anti-Washington Tea Party movement, Paul and his father (who is a Republican U.S. representative from Texas) have helped lead the charge against what critics call excessive federal intrusion, from healthcare to body searches.
In a harshly worded attack on the TSA, Ron Paul, known for his libertarian views, said the agency “gropes and grabs our kids and our seniors and does nothing to keep us safe.”
“The police state in this country is growing out of control” – he said in a statement.
The TSA said that after Rand Paul refused the patdown, he was escorted out of the airport security area in Nashville, Tennessee. Paul missed his flight to Washington but was later rebooked and rescreened without incident, it said.
Paul (a strong critic of the TSA) said officials told him his knee had triggered an alarm in a walk-in scanner and rebuffed his request to be rescreened.
When he refused a physical search, “I wasn’t allowed to leave until they got tired of me” – he said.
“I’m not against the rules. I just think they need to have common sense” – Paul said.
The TSA was created following the September 11, 2001, hijacked airplane attacks by al Qaeda on the United States. More than 650 million passengers fly on U.S. airlines, most using one of the more than 400 airports where TSA operates checkpoints.