The CIA's senior management saw problems with the armed Predator as well, problems that Clarke and even Black and Allen were inclined to minimize. One (which also applied to reconnaissance flights) was money. A Predator cost about $3 million. If the CIA flew Predators for its own reconnaissance or covert action purposes, it might be able to borrow them from the Air Force, but it was not clear that the Air Force would bear the cost if a vehicle went down. Deputy Secretary of Defense Wolfowitz took the position that the CIA should have to pay for it; the CIA disagreed. Second, Tenet in particular questioned whether he, as Director of Central Intelligence, should operate an armed Predator." This was new ground,"he told us. Tenet ticked off key questions: What is the chain of command? Who takes the shot? Are America's leaders comfortable with the CIA doing this, going outside of normal military command and control? Charlie Allen told us that when these questions were discussed at the CIA, he and the Agency's executive director, A. B." Buzzy" Krongard, had said that either one of them would be happy to pull the trigger, but Tenet was appalled, telling them that they had no authority to do it, nor did he. Third, the Hellfire warhead carried by the Predator needed work. It had been built to hit tanks, not people. It needed to be designed to explode in a different way, and even then had to be targeted with extreme precision. In the configuration planned by the Air Force through mid-2001, the Predator's missile would not be able to hit a moving vehicle. White House officials had seen the Predator video of the "man in white." On July 11, Hadley tried to hurry along preparation of the armed system. He directed McLaughlin, Wolfowitz, and Joint Chiefs Vice Chairman Richard Myers to deploy Predators capable of being armed no later than September 1.

Question: "What problems did the senior management of the CIA see with the armed predator?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "Money, and whether they should be operating this"

Response: yes

Zinni feared that Bin Laden would in the future locate himself in cities, where U.S. missiles could kill thousands of Afghans. He worried also lest Pakistani authorities not get adequate warning, think the missiles came from India, RESPONSES TO AL QAEDA'S INITIAL ASSAULTS 135 and do something that everyone would later regret. Discussing potential repercussions in the region of his military responsibility, Zinni said, "It was easy to take the shot from Washington and walk away from it. We had to live there." Zinni's distinct preference would have been to build up counterterrorism capabilities in neighboring countries such as Uzbekistan. But he told us that he could not drum up much interest in or money for such a purpose from Washington, partly, he thought, because these countries had dictatorial governments. After the decision-in which fear of collateral damage was an important factor- not to use cruise missiles against Kandahar in December 1998, Shelton and officers in the Pentagon developed plans for using an AC-130 gunship instead of cruise missile strikes. Designed specifically for the special forces, the version of the AC-130 known as "Spooky"can fly in fast or from high altitude, undetected by radar; guided to its zone by extraordinarily complex electronics, it is capable of rapidly firing precision-guided 25, 40, and 105 mm projectiles. Because this system could target more precisely than a salvo of cruise missiles, it had a much lower risk of causing collateral damage. After giving Clarke a briefing and being encouraged to proceed, Shelton formally directed Zinni and General Peter Schoomaker, who headed the Special Operations Command, to develop plans for an AC-130 mission against Bin Laden's headquarters and infrastructure in Afghanistan. The Joint Staff prepared a decision paper for deployment of the Special Operations aircraft. Though Berger and Clarke continued to indicate interest in this option, the AC-130s were never deployed. Clarke wrote at the time that Zinni opposed their use, and John Maher, the Joint Staff 's deputy director of operations, agreed that this was Zinni's position. Zinni himself does not recall blocking the option. He told us that he understood the Special Operations Command had never thought the intelligence good enough to justify actually moving AC-130s into position. Schoomaker says, on the contrary, that he thought the AC-130 option feasible. The most likely explanation for the two generals' differing recollections is that both of them thought serious preparation for any such operations would require a long-term redeployment of Special Operations forces to the Middle East or South Asia. The AC-130s would need bases because the aircraft's unrefueled range was only a little over 2,000 miles.

Question: "What was done in order to minimize collateral damage in Kandahar in December of 1998?"

Response: "Use cruise missiles"
OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

A: no

Problem: Dubai's Crown Prince Sheikh Mohamed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum inaugurated a free zone for e-commerce today, called Dubai Internet City. The preliminary stages of the project, the only one of its kind according to its designers, are estimated at $200 million. Sheikh Mohamed, who is also the Defense Minister of the United Arab Emirates, announced at the inauguration ceremony that "we want to make Dubai a new trading center." The minister, who has his own website, also said: "I want Dubai to be the best place in the world for state-of-the-art technology companies." He said companies engaged in e-commerce would be able to set up offices, employ staff and own equipment in the open zone, including fully-owned foreign companies. The e-commerce free zone is situated in north Dubai, near the industrial free zone in Jebel Ali, the top regional and tenth international leading area in container transit. The inauguration of Dubai Internet City coincides with the opening of an annual IT show in Dubai, the Gulf Information Technology Exhibition (Gitex), the biggest in the Middle East.

Question: "Where did the minister talk about the Dubai internet city?"

Answer: "Somewhere in Dubai"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes
Answer: yes

A flood occurs when a river overflows its banks. This might happen because of heavy rains. Floodplains In very flat regions, flood water may spread out on the surface of the land. It then slows down and drops its sediment. If a river floods often, a floodplain develops. A floodplain is an area where a thick layer of rich soil is left behind as the floodwater recedes. Thats why floodplains are usually good places for growing plants. They are very flat areas and they have very rich soils. The Nile River valley is a great example of a floodplain. Each year, the Nile River rises over its banks. This floodwater carries a lot of sediment. This sediment has been eroded off areas of land from upstream. This sediment is dropped as the water slows down after spreading across the land. What is left behind is a very rich soil. Thats why crops can be raised in the middle of a sandy desert. Natural Levees A flooding river often forms natural levees along its banks. A levee is a raised strip of sediments deposited close to the waters edge.

Question: "What forms the raised strip near the edge of a flooding river?"

OPTIONS:
- no
- yes

Answer: "River valley"

Response:
no