There are people who have been arrested/charged for making equivalent statements of truth that may be stupid but are not direct threats (such as retorting to a screener that is aggressively searching a bag, "What are you doing, it's not like I have a bomb in there?" or leaving notes in checked luggage mocking screeners for silly searches of bags by pointing out that the bag contains just clothes and not a bomb.).

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showt...=265155&page=1

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=261967

There have also been flights diverted and innocent passengers interrogated for equivalently-silly things such as the word "BOB" being written on a barf bag (someone thought it might mean "bomb on board.")

It is a shame we have created such a culture of fear that this pax was truly afraid.

omascreener is to be commended for exercising some common sense. TSA in general has a habit of overreacting to such non-threats.

I once considered flying with a "cookie gun" (a metal/plastic press that pushes dough through a stencil to make a shaped cookie) but decided against it because I was afraid TSA would ask "what's this?" and I would out of habit answer "cookie gun" and then get arrested.