Saturday I read an article about why the US lost the Olympic bid.  (I cannot find it now.)  Buried in that article was a quote from one person speculating that the US VISA restrictions imposed after 9/11 were the reason the US received so few votes and added that US universities had been especailly hurt by such restrictions severly restricting the ability of scholars and students to teach and study at US universities which has many worried about its negative impact upon US scientific prowess and future economic competitiveness. 

No one objects to intelligent diligence at the border, but there is widespread belief, based upon actual facts, that people of certain color and backgrounds do not get a fair shake at the border.  A few years ago I was in London, and the day I was to have lunch at Parliament with a friend who is a Labour MP, the morning BBC TV show reported that a junior Minister (and Labour MP) at the Home Office was detained for several hours by the Department of Homeland Security at Dulles Airport.  He was of Pakistani origin.  There is more.  He had all of his credentials AND had been invited by Secretary of Homeland Security Chertof to participate in a conference on terrorism.  The previous year this same Minister in the government of arguablely our closest ally had the same thing happen to him at JFK when he had been also invited by Sec Chertof to participate in a similar conference. 

I met my friend at Westminster in Central Lobby and off we went to lunch.  One of the first topics was the latest incarceration of this Minister/MP who also happened to be a good friend of my friend.  He told me that the previous year when this happened the US Ambassoador in order to forstall the adoption of a House of Commons resolution condemning the action borught over a high level official and met with numerous MP's.  They appologized profusely and promised it would never happen again.  My friend asked me if I thought it was racial/ethinic profiling and I said of course it was; he related that he had flown through JFK a few weeks ago and observed that the agents were pulling aside everyone who appeared to be Islamic. [The fallacy of this policy is that those up to no good will insure that they do not "look funny."]  My friend when he would run into other MP's sought support for a resoulution condemning this action and was receiving widespread (it appeared to me) support across party lines.  [The Blair government subsequently was able to talk the MP's into not introducing the resolution.]

The article also pointed out that most countries were not in th VISA waiver program and that it could take many months to get a VISA. It even causes problems for those in the waiver countries.  I recall reading an article, the Guardian I believe, a year or so ago about a non-London, well respected orchestra, the Halle as i recall, cancelling a US tour because it could not affored to transport all its orchestra members to the US embasy for interviews, pay all the fews, and come out ahead from the tour.

I strongly suspect this was a significant factor in the way many countries voted.