Instead of bomb, what if he had said "What if my friend's bag has (drugs, kiddie porn, a gun, etc.) in it?", would he be in the same amount of trouble? He has a valid point insisting his bag is tagged properly. What if his friend is a drug smuggler? The TSA says they aren't looking for drugs, but they like to let people know when they find them.

Bomb was a poor word to use, but talk about overreacting. Couldn't the airline worker have just called the police over, since the guy was standing there after dropping off his bag? I don't see why they needed to dump the terminal in this case. They know where the bag in question is.