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You are trying too hard not to see it. It was intended to look like a bmb

No I'm not and no it wasn't. Looking at it, it is obvious what it is. I can idenfy everything on it as harmless. It is a breadboard, a number of LEDs and a battery. There is no harmful device that can be made with any combination of those items. Furthermore, she had been wearing it around town for months and other MIT students do similar things. If she had wanted to make it look like a bomb she would have.

HollyB - If you don't see the difference between blinky lights and a lit fuse then I am incapable of dumbing down my argument sufficiently to satisfy you.

BC, I am saying that action needs to be taken immediately when a possible problem is seen. This is a situation where seconds are involved in making a decision. There is nothing wrong with taking immediate action, stopping a potential problem, and then sorting it out later. If it turns out to be nothing - good. Which in this case, is what happened. There is no reason to ridicule the authorities for doing their job. In a situation like this there is not alot of time to study each and every component seen and possible NOT SEEN on this shirt.