“To the Editor:

The United States, once a close ally, is now a country to be feared.
The interrogation methods President Bush acknowledges to exist are
undoubtedly torture, no matter how often he repeats that they are not.

As a European, I am now afraid to visit the United States and will not
do so unless I have to for my work for fear of doing something wrong at
the airport and being detained for a prolonged if not indefinite
period of time. I also do not to dare express critical views in e-mail
messages to American colleagues and friends, for fear they will get in
trouble with authorities. This is how my contacts with the United States, a
once friendly nation, have evolved.

Kees Schepers, Antwerp, Belgium, Oct. 6, 2007”

Kees Schepers is afraid. He is very afraid. Then again, he’s not afraid
to denounce America on the pages of America’s third most widely read
newspaper. That may make him the bravest man in Belgium.
http://www.opinionjournal.com/best/?id=110010715

See also: Belgium is coming apart
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-goldberg9oct09,0,4034634.column?coll=la-opinion-rightrail