What am I missing here?

This is laudable without a doubt, but why is the government funding it at all? If its individuals acting on their own I can sort of understand it, but not if the funding is going to NGOs.

The State Department announced a $1 million emergency fund Thursday to help cover such expenses as legal fees and medical bills for human rights activists.

The fund is meant to pay short-term bills for people who take great risks by defending human rights "in countries where tyranny persists," the department said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also redefined U.S. goals and expectations for international treatment of independent groups that promote democracy and human rights.

People should be able to freely join such groups, which the State Department calls non-governmental organizations or NGOs, and the groups should be free to act within international law, the department said.

"Whenever NGOs and other human rights defenders are under siege, freedom and democracy are undermined. The world's democracies must push back," Rice said in commemorating national human rights week. "We must defend the defenders." [emphasis mine]

So when is a NGO not a NGO? Or is this the first step in Bushco's trying to infiltrate and gain some leverage over them?

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