Tyranny: Senator Rand Paul Detained at US Airport

Senator Rand Paul, the son of the libertarian Republican candidate Ron Paul, was detained by guards at a Tennessee airport on Monday after apparently refusing to submit to a full body pat-down.

Senator Rand Paul

From The Telegraph

By Raf Sanchez

The younger Mr Paul, who like his father is a fierce advocate of civil liberties, was reportedly held at Nashville International Airport by agents from the Transport Security Administration (TSA), an agency he has repeatedly criticised for encroaching on Americans' freedoms.

A spokeswoman for the Kentucky Senator said he was being held "indefinitely" after he set off an alarm in an image scanner used at the airport's security check point.

The 49-year-old reportedly told agents that there was a fault in the machine and refused to submit to a physical search. 

His father's campaign tweeted: "My son @SenRandPaul being detained by TSA for refusing full body pat-down after anomaly in body scanner in Nashville. More details coming."

In a separate Facebook post post, the campaign said that the senator had asked to be scanned a second time but that agents refused and insisted on a full pat-down.

Supporters of the Republican hopeful, whose campaign is centred around personal liberty, erupted in fury on Twitter and other social media sites.

There was no immediate comment from the TSA, which is part of the Department of Homeland Security - the federal department created to defend the US from terrorism in the wake of the September 11 attacks.

In a Congressional hearing last year, the senator said the agency carried out needlessly "invasive" searches on young children.