Perhaps I am too closed minded, but I do not see why such a huge deal was made of this. I will be among the first to admit that paranoia with the TSA is abnormally strong. At the same time, this person, at least from the few details I read, did not have any crime committed against him. The only things TSA are at fault for was the 5 hour detention and the resulting missed flights, based on the fact that he was carrying some flash cards with Arabic translations of words associated with attacks on aviation in the past 10 years.

What charges were brought against the TSA? What monetary damages? Was he assaulted in the process? If I walk through a checkpoint with "bomb" and "terrorist" in English, Spanish, etc., I guarantee the same thing would happen to me. Are the pieces of paper innately dangerous? No. Is having a regular looking, young, american man who can shout commands in Arabic to take down an aircraft potentially dangerous? I would argue yes. It is the world we live in and foresight from a senior in college should have alerted him that it was not the brightest idea to bring those cards.